


The Things We Lost

by snarfette



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, Mutants, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-16 12:39:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2270025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarfette/pseuds/snarfette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes even superheroes need saving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any person mentioned in this story. I’m not making any money from writing this. Everything here is made up, hence the ‘fiction’ part of fanfiction.
> 
> This story is for Renzoloft who prompted me to write some angsty-Liam, struggling with overcoming his demons during one of our comment discussions! I hope you enjoy and that this lives up to your expectations. :)
> 
> For the setting of this story, human beings with advanced skills and mutations are common and accepted in society. For that reason, the boys do not need to hide their identities as ‘superheroes’ so don’t wear masks. Some people choose to live normal lives and use their ‘gifts’ solely for personal reasons, while others (including the lads) use them for the benefit of other people. And, as is always the way in these stories, some people choose to use their powers to be bad.
> 
> Also, the title for this story comes from Bastille’s ‘Things We Lost In The Fire’. And I’m sure you will gather that my inspiration for this fic came from the Teenage Dirtbag section of ‘This Is Us’ and the amazing artwork I’ve seen based on that.

It was probably the biggest fire that they had ever dealt with. The fire crews were desperately trying to stop it spreading and calm its ferocity but they were obviously struggling to contain it.

Niall had decided that they needed to head to the scene to help out. He had been monitoring the reports of the blaze on the news and through the various communications channels he had tapped in to, and he had discovered that there were people still trapped in the building with the firemen rapidly running out of time to help them.

They hadn’t even had time for the car, so the simplest solution had been for Harry to teleport himself, Liam, Andy and Zayn straight to the scene. As soon as they arrived, Liam located the fire chief and requested a full overview of the situation. He reported back to the others that things were looking pretty grim.

“They think there could be as many as twenty people still trapped on the upper floors. There’s no way they can make it down without help and the fire crews can’t get in because the fire’s too intense,” Liam filled them in as quickly as possible.

“I can teleport them out,” Harry immediately announced.

“Not until you’ve seen where you’re going,” Liam told him sternly. “You might accidently land right in the middle of a fireball if you try and go in there blind. We need to go in the old-fashioned way, and _then_ you can start getting people out.”

“So we’re going in?” Zayn asked.

“Of course we are,” Andy replied easily. “This’ll be no problem.”

“Maybe for you,” Zayn commented as he scrunched up his nose. “Unfortunately we don’t all have the ability to control fire and we certainly don’t have flame-proof skin.”

Andy reached out to ruffle Zayn’s hair as Zayn batted his hand away. “Aw, are you worried you’ll singe your fur?”

“I don’t _have_ fur,” Zayn responded immediately.

“We don’t have time for this,” Liam interrupted them. “We need to get in there now.”

“I love it when you get all forceful,” Andy smirked and winked at Liam.

They all ran towards the door of the building but just as they were about to enter, Liam grabbed Andy’s arm.

“Be careful,” he said seriously, “Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”

Andy rolled his eyes but smiled fondly at Liam. “I’m always careful,” he said gently.

Liam frowned at him but Andy’s smile only widened. He pressed a quick kiss to Liam’s cheek. “You worry too much but I love you for it. Now come on, there’s hero stuff to be done,” he announced enthusiastically.

It was Liam’s turn to roll his eyes but then he schooled his features into a determined expression. There really was work to be done.

Running into a burning building was fairly standard stuff for the four of them. They had tackled worse and had been in so many life-threatening situations that the whole thing seemed pretty normal.

Andy took the lead, pushing back the flames with a flick of his wrist. Each time he moved his hand, the fire curled backwards enough for the group to pass through untouched before it roared back to its original position once they had moved on. The heat from the blaze was intense and the thick, acrid smoke filled the air making their eyes water and making it hard to breathe. They were glad of their specially designed suits that Niall had insisted on them wearing for all missions. With Andy’s fire manipulation abilities, Niall had decided that it was for the best if all of their suits were fire-proof in case they got caught in the crossfire (literally) and right now they were particularly grateful for his idea. They pushed on regardless of the danger, up flights of stairs that creaked and moaned under their weight and past rooms full of flames.

Zayn was the most light-footed of all of them so found he could pick his way across the damaged floorboards and stairs easily. He overtook Andy at the top of the final staircase and stood completely still. Through the roaring of the fire and the cracking and splintering of wood, he could hear the weak cries of those still trapped and he directed the others towards the room they were sheltering in.

In one easy movement, Liam had pulled the door from its hinges and the four of them rushed inside to find several people cowering beside the window. Their desperate faces displayed shock but also hope at the sight of the group of men that had appeared in the room.

Harry immediately stepped forward. He scanned the group and picked out a mother and her two young sons.

“Take hold of my hand,” he ordered. “Do not let go of me.”

The mother quickly ushered her children towards Harry. She looked at him slightly nervously before she placed her children’s hands into Harry’s and then wrapped her hand around his wrist tightly. Before anyone in the room could blink, Harry and the family had disappeared. The remaining people gasped and stared at the space where they had been standing with wide eyes. It was almost comical that even in such a life-threatening situation they could still be so stunned, like they were at some sort of magic show.

Andy had moved to the doorway and was swiping the flames away from the room rapidly. It was a constant battle against the raging fire that wanted to lick its way into the room.

“Andy?” Liam called out, just to check if he was alright.

Andy cast a quick glance over his shoulder at Liam and grinned. He _almost_ looked like he was enjoying himself.

“I could do this all day,” he yelled, “No sweat.”

Liam nodded at him, ignoring his terrible joke, before turning his attention back to the other occupants of the room. 

Within moments, Harry had reappeared and he immediately selected three more people to transport. He could have carried more but the more people he transported, the more risky it became and he couldn’t afford to have his concentration disturbed in such circumstances. He vanished along with the next group as quickly as he had the first time. He repeated the action over and over, disappearing with a group of people and reappearing as soon as he had moved them to safety.

“Liam?” Niall’s voice called through his ear piece.

Liam lifted his hand to his ear to try to hear more clearly. “Go ahead Niall,” he responded.

“Liam, you need to get out of there. The fire chief’s called it; says the building’s going to go down. You need to get out now,” Niall told him. The concern was obvious in his voice.

Liam glanced around the room. There were still four people left cowering as Zayn tried to keep them calm and breathing.

“We’ve got civilians still trapped up here,” he told Niall and both Zayn and Andy looked across at him, already understanding what Liam must have been told.

“Your time’s up Liam,” Niall said. “Get out of there.”

Harry reappeared at that moment. He took one look at Liam’s face and nodded. He’d heard Niall’s message in his own earpiece and he grabbed hold of the four people still in the room. In such dire circumstances, he couldn’t afford to worry about splitting the remaining group up; he had to take them all in one go. He vanished from sight along with his ‘passengers’ and left only Liam, Andy and Zayn still in the room. They exchanged a relieved look that all of the people were safely away from the fire.

“What now?” Zayn shouted over the sound of the fire ripping the building apart, causing sections to collapse.

“We wait for Harry to come back for us,” Liam called back.

Andy looked over his shoulder at them as he continued to push the fire back. “I can clear a path for us,” he yelled. “Let’s go.”

“No,” Liam argued. “It’s too risky. The building’s coming down and the fire’s too intense. Wait for Harry, he’ll be back any minute now.”

“We don’t need to wait,” Andy urged. “I can get us out. Come on.”

He turned back to the fire and took a step forward. He forced the flames back with his hand and moved forward again. Glancing backwards, he locked eyes with Liam.

“Come _on_ Li,” he yelled again.

Liam took a step forward but before he could go any further, Zayn grabbed his arm. He was wide-eyed as he held on to Liam.

“No!” he said forcefully. “Andy stop! The floor’s going to…”

Several things happened at once. Andy turned around at the sound of Zayn’s voice and looked at him questioningly. There was a terrible creaking sound that could be heard even over the roar of the fire. Then, the floor where Andy was standing seemed to crack open. His eyes flicked to Liam and he looked panicked for a moment before he started to fall through the hole in the floor. In the same moment, Harry reappeared in the room beside Liam and Zayn.

“ _No!_ ” Liam screamed as he moved to lunge forward but Zayn grabbed hold of him tightly preventing him from falling through the floorboards which were splitting and disappearing rapidly, engulfed in flames as they fell away.

Liam struggled against Zayn, desperate to get to where Andy had been standing moments ago but suddenly the room, and the fire, was gone. Liam felt the odd, rushing feeling he always had whenever Harry teleported them somewhere and almost instantly he was standing outside the building, still struggling against Zayn.

“No, _no_!” he shouted. “We have to go back.” He pushed Zayn away and grabbed Harry’s arm. “Take us back!” he yelled. “We need to go back for Andy.”

“Li, there’s nothing you can do. You _can’t_ go back in there,” Harry told him as he shook his head in despair.

Liam looked furious as he squeezed Harry’s arm tightly. “Take me back _now_!” he commanded angrily.

Harry shook his head again. As he opened his mouth to speak again, there was a thunderous groaning sound and the building that they had been standing in moments before began to collapse in on itself. It crumpled rapidly before their eyes and left them all staring in shock.

***

It took several hours before the building was stable enough for them to re-enter. It wasn’t really a building at all anymore; it was more like a pile of smouldering rubble. The ground floor was still mostly accessible with extremely careful negotiation.

The roof was still groaning under the strain of the wreckage piled above it as Liam, Harry, Zayn and Niall entered.

Niall had driven down to the scene as soon as he had heard what had happened and joined them in the search for their missing friend. 

Liam was desperate to get inside and find Andy. He was _sure_ that he would be alright; maybe he was trapped somewhere or hurt and couldn’t move. Even when Niall had tried to locate Andy telepathically but had no success, Liam still refused to believe the worst. He just said that if Andy was unconscious he wouldn’t be able to reach him.

The four of them picked their way through the disaster zone, calling out as they went. It was a slow and dreadful task as they carefully made their way through the rubble.

It was Liam that found Andy. The navy and yellow of his suit stood out even in the dimness of the collapsed building. Liam rushed forward and fell to his knees beside him. He called his name desperately and shook his shoulders gently.

“Niall,” he called out, “He’s over here.”

He turned his attention back to Andy. There was a graze running from above his right eyebrow down his temple but, other than that, he looked unscathed. His fire resistant skin had obviously protected him from the flames.

As Niall approached, he could already see that Andy was dead. He was completely, frighteningly still, his body twisted at an unusual angle. There was no rise and fall of his chest, no flicker of his eyelids. Niall watched as Liam squeezed Andy’s hand and called his name repeatedly. He got to his knees beside Liam and felt Andy’s neck for a pulse. He already knew what he’d find but he did it for Liam’s benefit more than anything else.

Harry and Zayn had appeared and were standing watching the scene with wide eyes. Removing his fingers, Niall placed his hand over Liam’s that was still holding Andy’s hand. Liam looked at him hopefully and in that moment Niall thought he looked so young.

“Liam,” he started gently, “I’m sorry. He’s gone.”

Liam’s eyes widened and he shook his head in denial. “No, no he’s not,” he said desperately.

“Li, listen to me please…he didn’t make it. Andy’s dead,” Niall told him, still speaking gently as he struggled to hold back the tears that had started to pool in his own eyes.

Liam looked back at Andy’s face and just stared for a long time. Gently, he slid his hands under Andy’s back and lifted him to hold him against his chest. He pulled him close as his eyes filled with tears.

For several minutes, Liam was absolutely silent as he held Andy’s broken body tightly. Then he threw his head back and let out a terrible scream that was filled with pure anguish. It was the sound of his heart breaking and it crushed his friends to hear it. They knew in that moment that none of them would ever be the same again.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the lovely feedback so far!
> 
> I'm updating with this chapter so quickly because the first part was really just a short prologue to set the scene for the rest of the story, and also because I said that feedback encourages me to work more quickly and it really did! I'd love to know what you think of the story so far, so please let me know. :)

Two Years Later

For at least the hundredth time that day, Louis wondered what he was doing. He had been wondering the same thing, questioning himself and second guessing everything, since he had met Niall a few months ago. Now, as he pulled up outside Niall’s home, he was still asking himself if he was making a monumental (even by his standards) mistake.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Niall. In fact, Louis was pretty sure that it would actually be impossible to _dis_ like Niall. It was just that everything that Niall had told him still seemed a little far-fetched.

Of course, Louis knew that there was a group of ‘superheroes’ (for lack of any other description) that apparently guarded the city and sprung into action when trouble struck, but Louis could hardly believe that Niall was in charge of such an organisation. He had seen them on the news and in the papers, kitted out in special suits, looking like a well-oiled machine as they saved the day on numerous occasions. Niall - who seemed so carefree and _giddy_ as he chatted away to Louis - wasn’t exactly ‘serious commander of a superhero team’ material. But apparently, Louis was wrong. It hadn’t taken Niall long to introduce himself and reveal his alter-ego and also inform Louis that he was exactly the sort of person that would fit in to their team.

Louis had scoffed a little at the suggestion but then Niall had fixed him with a searching look and told him that maybe it was time for him “ _to do something about it_ ”. At first, Louis had wondered what the hell Niall was going on about but then Niall had casually revealed that he was a telepath so he knew that Louis had some demons that he needed to put to rest. Anger had surged through Louis at that; he didn’t want someone that he had only just met helping themselves to his memories and thoughts. He had found himself itching to react but, before he could, Niall had calmly told him that he hadn’t been reading his mind, rather he could pick up on the feeling of ‘needing to do something’ rolling off Louis in waves.

Louis had met with Niall several times after that. He was curious. He wanted to know more about what the band of superheroes did and he definitely wondered why Niall thought that he would fit in.

Apparently, it had taken Niall quite a while to find Louis. He had been using his psychic navigation to locate mutants for a long time but had not found anyone that he felt would fit in with the group. Then, one day, he had stumbled upon Louis and had had a good feeling about him.

Louis was still sceptical. He wasn’t sure that picking someone based on a ‘feeling’ was the best way to choose a new member of a team of heroes but he wasn’t an expert.

Niall seemed very fond of his friends that worked alongside him. He was happy to fill Louis in on some information about them, smiling as he described them, but then he had stopped himself and told Louis that it was probably best to meet them and make his own judgements. So Louis knew that he would be joining a teleporter, a man with feline physiology and someone with enhanced strength and telekinesis but that was about it. He wasn’t too worried though – he liked meeting new people, he could talk to pretty much anyone and as soon as someone got used to his antics they would be laughing along with him.

After months of meeting up with Niall, Louis was finally going to be introduced to the rest of the group. Even though Niall was great, Louis still couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe he was making a mistake. Was he really cut out for this? Niall certainly seemed to think he was. But Louis was good at doubting himself. He liked to act confident, but deep down, he was always questioning himself. Was he really good enough? Was he doing the right thing? Would he let someone down? It was those thoughts that had led him from his car and up to the front door of Niall’s massive house. He was apprehensive and would probably be wondering if he was a fool for quite some time but he wasn’t planning on letting anyone down _ever_ again. He was going to do the right thing and he was going to stand up and make a difference.

He rang the doorbell and then bounced from one foot to the other agitatedly while he waited for Niall to answer.

It wasn’t Niall that pulled the door open. Instead, it was a tall, curly-haired man with a cheeky smile playing on his lips.

“Hi, you must be Louis.” He spoke with a surprisingly deep, rather slow voice but he also sounded enthusiastic about Louis’ appearance.

“I must be,” Louis replied with a smile. “And you must be…”

“Harry,” the other man supplied. “I thought that Niall would have told you about us, or shown you a photo or something.”

“He did tell me about you – a bit,” Louis said. He felt a little bit weird just standing around on the doorstep.

“Well, come on in then,” Harry said as he beckoned for Louis to enter. He closed the door behind him as Louis stared around the large hallway with slightly wide eyes. He hadn’t realised that Niall’s house would be quite so huge. However, regardless of its size, Louis automatically felt at ease inside. There was a calm atmosphere about the place and it felt like a _home_. The scent of something delicious was wafting through to the hall and Louis’ stomach actually growled lowly at the smell. He might have felt embarrassed but when he looked at Harry he saw that he was positively beaming.

“Are you hungry?” he asked brightly. “I hope so, I’ve been slaving away over dinner all afternoon. Niall volunteered me for cooking duty but that’s pretty standard around here. Oh, I’d better go and get him I suppose. Just wait right here.”

Louis was about to reply when Harry disappeared right in front of his eyes. Louis had seen people teleport before but it still startled him. He wondered for a moment how long he’d be left alone for, when Harry reappeared in front of him still smiling widely.

“I’m glad you didn’t move,” Harry laughed. “Otherwise I might have landed right on top of you.”

Louis’ eyes widened. “Don’t you have more control over it than that?” he asked, but then cringed at how rude that sounded.

It didn’t seem to bother Harry though, as he barked out a laugh. “Of course I do. I was just kidding. I’m not sure I’d be much use if I just kept crushing people. That’s not to say that I don’t _occasionally_ have accidents. I’m not promising that I won’t find my way into your bed one night.” He smirked and winked at Louis.

Louis was about to retort with some witty comeback (he already liked Harry) when a new voice interrupted their conversation.

“Haz, stop flirting with the new guy.”

Both Harry and Louis turned their attention to the staircase, where a dark haired man was making his way down the stairs.

Louis knew that this man had to be Zayn. Everything about him was cat-like; the way he nimbly made his way down the stairs without making a sound on the steps, the way his eyes were fixed on Louis with absolute focus, the way every movement seemed smooth and the way he looked immaculate, like he’d never be seen looking anything less than his best.

“I wasn’t flirting,” Harry replied and he was pouting like a toddler.

Zayn’s eyes flicked to him and narrowed slightly.

Louis wondered briefly if he’d got caught in the middle of two lovers but then Zayn’s attention was back on him.

“I’m Zayn,” he said as he stuck out his hand.

Louis shook it firmly and nodded at him. “Louis,” he replied.

“Apologies for Harry,” Zayn continued. “He gets rather over-excited about new people. A bit like an excitable, overgrown puppy really – and they say _I’m_ an animal.”   

“Heeeyyy,” Harry whined. He reached out to grab at Zayn, attempting to ruffle his hair and Zayn sprang away from him immediately, landing back on the stairs gracefully.

The next thing Louis knew, Harry had disappeared and was suddenly beside Zayn on the stairs. He watched in bewilderment as they started pushing and attempting to grab each other. He couldn’t help but laugh as Zayn managed to clamber onto Harry’s back only to land carefully on the ground a few seconds later as Harry teleported from beneath him.

“Children, children,” Niall’s bright voice suddenly cut across their yelling. “Stop showing yourselves up in front of Louis. You’ll scare him away before he’s got started.”

Harry and Zayn both stood up straighter and tried to wipe the grins off their faces as they sent a last playful glare in each other’s direction.

Niall made his way over to the three of them and smiled widely. “I’m glad you’ve all been introduced and this is probably all for the best,” he said as he waved his hand at Harry and Zayn. “At least now you’ve seen them in their natural state of ridiculousness. I promise it’s not always like this though.”

Louis just shrugged and smiled. “I’ve got younger siblings,” he said, “I know what kids are like.”

Niall was still smiling as he grabbed Louis’ arm to guide him out of the hallway.

“How’s dinner coming along?” he directed at Harry over his shoulder.

“Fine,” Harry replied. “Nearly ready.”

“Good,” Niall said, “because I’m starving.”

“You’re always bloody starving,” Harry told him as he rolled his eyes with a smile and wandered off in the opposite direction. Eventually, Zayn followed him after what appeared to be a quick, silent conversation with Niall.

“So, you decided it was worth it then?” Niall asked as they walked into the living room. He guided Louis towards the huge window in the room so they could look out over the sprawling gardens.

“Yeah,” Louis answered. “I figured it had to be worth the risk. I want to make a difference and use my gifts for something other than messing about.”

Niall smiled at him and nodded. “Then, you’ve made the right decision.”

After a moment of silence, both of them still looking out of the window, Louis spoke again. “When you said you all lived together, I was picturing some little house where you were all crammed in like students – not anything quite so…impressive as all of this,” he said as he waved his hand around.

A wide grin split Niall’s face as he chuckled at Louis’ comment. “It is pretty impressive isn’t it? I came into some inheritance and decided to put it to good use. And what better use can there be than helping other people? We’re lucky Louis. Lucky to have these powers that mean we can do amazing things and lucky to have the opportunity to use them to do good things. I’m not willing to waste that.”

Louis looked at him steadily and could tell that Niall was incredibly passionate about what he did. He really did want to save people and make the world a better place. That was something that Louis could definitely get on board with.

“So, I don’t want to look like I’m showing off or anything, but I bet you’d like a tour right?” Niall suddenly asked.

Nodding eagerly, Louis agreed and allowed Niall to lead him back out of the room.

As they walked, Niall pointed out various rooms and features of the house. When they passed windows, he explained about the grounds that the house was set in, telling Louis about how they used the extensive space for training in the better weather. They went upstairs and Niall showed Louis the room that would become his, if he made the final decision to stay, and then they wandered back along the landing towards a lift.

“We’ll take this down to the basement,” Niall said as he pressed the button to call it. “That’s where we do most training exercises: it’s pretty well kitted out.”

A quiet ping announced their arrival in the basement and when the doors opened, Louis nearly staggered backwards in shock. The space was immense and seemed to continue in all directions as far as he could see. There were doors leading off to specially equipped training rooms and racks of weapons for close-combat training fixed to the walls. A massive, complex system of computers with the biggest screen Louis had ever seen was arranged in one corner.

Niall was beaming at him brightly as he urged Louis out of the lift. He looked like a cross between a proud parent showing off his baby and an excited kid unveiling his new toys.

Louis was sure his mouth was probably flapping open but he just couldn’t find any words to explain what was going through his mind. This was insane. But it was also probably the most exciting thing he’d ever seen. And he couldn’t get over the fact that it was all being shown to him because he had the chance to actually join this group.

Niall was talking animatedly about the various equipment and areas of the basement as they walked and Louis was trying his best to absorb everything.

As they made their way further through the basement, Louis became aware of a regular, thumping sound echoing around the space. He was still trying to place what it was when Niall brought him to an abrupt halt. A little way in front of them there was glass wall, creating a partition around a room. The thumping sound was coming from within the room and Louis realised that there was a man inside driving his fists into a large punching bag. The bag was suspended from the ceiling by incredibly thick chains but still it looked to be struggling against the onslaught aimed at it.

Without realising he was moving, Louis had stepped closer to the room. He watched, transfixed, as the man’s muscles moved beneath his sweat covered skin, as he threw punch after punch at the bag. When he eventually stopped, he rested his forehead against the bag for a moment. Then he suddenly looked up and his eyes locked with Louis’. He just stared at him and Louis could see the muscle in his jaw clench. After a long moment of staring intensely, the man tore his eyes away from Louis and began slamming his fists into the bag again.

“That’s Liam,” Niall said from beside Louis.

Louis jumped a little at his voice. He hadn’t even been aware of the blonde man’s presence next to him. He dragged his eyes away to look at Niall’s face.

“He spends a lot of time down here,” Niall continued, as he took Louis’ elbow gently and guided him away from the glass.

Louis wanted to know more, he felt like he had questions bubbling up inside him that he wanted to have answered but he didn’t understand why he felt so curious. He didn’t want to seem nosy so he pushed all of his questions down.

It seemed that Niall wasn’t going to be giving anything else away anyway as he steered Louis back towards the lift. “Grub’s up,” he announced cheerfully.

When Louis looked at him questioningly, Niall just tapped the side of his head with a mock-serious expression on his face. “I told you, I like to use my powers for important things – like, for example, knowing when Harry’s serving up my dinner.”

Louis laughed as Niall pressed the button in the lift and the doors slid closed.

In the kitchen, Harry was busily piling steaming food onto five plates when Louis and Niall entered.

“Right on time,” he smirked at Niall knowingly. “I thought we’d eat in here, if that’s okay; didn’t really want to do the whole formal dining experience.”

“Fine by me,” Niall told him before gesturing that Louis should take a seat at the breakfast bar that they would be gathering around to eat at.

“Is Li coming up?” Zayn asked.

Niall made a non-committal sound as he shrugged a little. “I’m sure he’ll be on his way.”

Then he became silent and a look of concentration settled on his face. After a few minutes, his face softened again and he joined back in with the conversation.

The four of them sat around with their food chattering happily. Harry was full of questions for Louis and he didn’t seem to have any filter on what came out of his mouth. Louis was already feeling quite at ease with the three men. They were interesting, intelligent and funny, and a little bit weird, which made Louis feel right at home in their presence. He felt like they had already accepted him and he just knew that the way they were behaving was how they would have been even if he wasn’t there, which made him feel completely welcomed.

After a while, Zayn turned his head towards the archway leading into the kitchen and fixed his eyes on the space. The other three men all followed his gaze and a few moments later Liam walked into the room. He glanced around the gathered group and his eyes locked on Louis again.

“Liam, this is Louis,” Niall said brightly, although the smile looked a little more forced this time.

Liam didn’t speak; he just stared at Louis.

“Nice to meet you,” Louis offered with a smile.

Still Liam didn’t speak; instead he walked to the counter and picked up his plate. Then he turned around and started to walk out of the room.

“Aren’t you going to sit with us?” Harry asked. He sounded sort of hopeful but also like he already knew what Liam was going to say.

“I’ve got stuff to do,” Liam spoke for the first time, casting a quick glance over his shoulder at Harry.

Louis watched as Harry’s shoulders slumped a little and Zayn focused back on his food, pushing it around his plate half-heartedly with his fork.

The atmosphere in the kitchen had changed so dramatically that Louis could hardly keep up. He wondered how Liam could be a part of this team if he was so different to the rest of them. Since he had arrived, he had received nothing but welcoming smiles and friendly laughter from Harry, Zayn and Niall but Liam was the complete opposite. Not only did he seem to be totally uninterested in Louis’ arrival, he seemed to be causing a bad vibe with the others too. He hadn’t even thanked Harry for his food, he’d hardly spoken to any of them and couldn’t even be bothered to greet a guest in the house. He seemed like he was a bit of a dick actually and Louis couldn’t help but wonder why the others wanted him around.           

Niall was out of his seat immediately and he followed Liam out into the hallway.

“Liam,” he called to his friend’s retreating form.

“Niall,” Liam said as he stopped in his tracks but didn’t turn around.

Niall caught up with him and moved to stand in front of him. “What are you doing?” Niall asked as he looked at his friend seriously.

“Taking my food upstairs,” Liam answered simply.

Niall huffed out an exasperated breath. “Why are you being like this?”

“Like what?” Liam countered awkwardly.

“You said you’d make an effort,” Niall said, sounding a little sad.

“No, you asked me to make an effort and I said I’d try my best,” Liam told him flatly.

“So this is your best then?” Niall continued. He shook his head, trying to shake the annoyance from his tone. “Look I know this is hard for you…”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Liam interrupted him.

“I want you to try to accept that this is happening. I want you to try to be alright with it. I want you to realise that this is the best for our _team_ ,” Niall said as he looked at Liam steadily.

Liam’s jaw clenched, the muscle twitching beneath the skin. “I will try my best for you and Harry and Zayn. But I just need some time…to get my head around this.” With that, he side-stepped Niall and started making his way up the staircase.

Niall watched him go, wondering how long it would take for Liam to move on from the things that had emotionally scarred him so terribly. He sometimes wondered if Liam would _ever_ move on. He had been so devastated by Andy’s death and he had become so closed off that, at times, he was hardly recognisable. He still cared deeply about his friends. That was obvious in the way he always looked out for them when they were on missions or the times that Niall would catch a glimpse of Liam’s thoughts and see how Liam saw them as his brothers. But sometimes that seemed buried so deep that Niall was scared that Liam would be emotionally shut down forever.

Liam’s emotions were very flat when he was around his friends. While Harry would cry over an advert about abandoned kittens on the television, and Zayn would fly into a rage over something trivial, and Niall would nearly wet himself with laughter about something completely ridiculous, Liam was always steady, always in control of his emotions.

Of course, Niall could feel it. He knew that Liam was terrified of letting go. He was terrified of unleashing his emotions and _feeling_. He was scared that his anger would take hold and he would lose control, he was scared that he’d break down and never stop crying, he was scared that he’d laugh too much and then feel guilty about being happy.

In two years, nothing had changed. Liam had been the same since the day that they had buried Andy. Niall had decided that it was time for a change. He just hoped that he was right and that introducing Louis to the team was the change that was needed.

***

Louis had moved in. He hadn’t taken any persuading. As soon as he had set foot in Niall’s house he had realised that it was what he wanted. He was determined to become a valued member of their team and he was determined to prove to himself that he could be truly good at something and make a difference in the world.

Harry and Zayn seemed to be genuinely enthusiastic about his presence and Niall had just given him a confident smile as if to say that he had known all along that Louis would be joining them.

The only issue was Liam and his apparent lack of interest in Louis. Whenever Louis was there, Liam was quiet (practically silent). The others all made up for it but Louis was wondering if it was him that Liam had a problem with or if Liam was always that difficult to get along with. He kept his thoughts to himself, not wanting to say anything out of turn and upset the others but he couldn’t help but try to figure Liam out. He had tried to start conversations with Liam or drag him into conversations but Liam was like a brick wall, unyielding and blank.

After a few days of settling in, Niall had suggested that Louis got into a training regime. Before he could do that, Harry and Zayn had insisted that Louis showed them what he could do. So far, Louis hadn’t displayed his abilities in front of them at all and Harry in particular was dying for a demonstration. Niall had agreed that it was a good idea as it would help him to devise a training plan that complemented his strengths and gave him areas to develop.

Rather nervously, Louis had met them all (including Liam) in the basement. He was happy to show off what he could do, but usually the people watching were just amazed by his powers. Now, he knew that he had to impress to prove that he was worthy of joining this elite team.

Niall showed Louis into one of the larger training rooms. Along one wall was a window and as Niall told him to just go for it, Louis saw Harry, Zayn and Liam appear at the glass. Harry waved and grinned excitedly and Louis couldn’t help but chuckle at his enthusiasm. Niall patted him on the shoulder and quickly disappeared out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. When Louis glanced at the window, Niall was standing next to Liam giving him a thumbs up.

Louis swallowed thickly and wondered where to start. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly in and out a few times. He always found that his powers reacted better if he was calm. That wasn’t ideal for a person aiming to be using his powers in potentially life-threatening situations but Niall had reassured him that they would develop some strategies to help him keep focused in the field.

He lifted his right hand, palm facing upwards, breathed out deeply and then there were clouds floating near the roof. His fingers twitched and the clouds instantly turned dark and rain began pouring from them. Louis closed his hand into a fist sharply and the rain instantly stopped and the clouds disappeared. He extended his fingers again and swirled his arm before him and a violent wind suddenly whipped up. Louis circled his arm and the wind curled into a tornado that moved around the room wherever he directed it.

He felt completely alive all of a sudden. He didn’t have chance to do this sort of thing very often. It wouldn’t have gone down that well if he’d started making tornadoes and storm clouds in his apartment block so he’d not had chance to let loose for a while.

The tornado was still spinning around, pulling at his clothes and blowing his hair wildly around his face so he squeezed his fingers together slowly and it gradually quietened. But he wasn’t finished. He raised both hands towards the roof and after a moment of concentration he brought them down by his sides rapidly. The rumble of thunder that tore through the room was almost deafening and the whole room seemed to shake with it. Louis pressed his hands together firmly and closed his eyes briefly before he felt the surge of energy building within him. His eyes snapped open and he moved his hands apart. Stretching between his fingers were crackling forks of lightning. He spun round and shot his hands out. The lightning cracked across the room in a flash, striking one of the target boards in the centre and setting it on fire. Louis smirked and created another storm cloud which he calmly floated over to the board and set about making it rain to extinguish the fire.

The door to the room was ripped open a few seconds later and Niall, Harry and Zayn came rushing in, grinning and clapping him on the back, congratulating him on how amazing his powers were. Louis grinned back, he couldn’t help it. But when he looked back at the observation window, he saw that Liam wasn’t there and somehow that seemed to take some of the excitement out of the moment.  

*** 

Louis’ training began immediately. Niall had created a structured programme for him to follow which included working on his own developing his skills and also working alongside the others.

After seeing Louis’ demonstration, Niall was convinced that he would be able to fly if he could manage to control the wind he created and use the thermal currents. Louis was a little sceptical but was willing to trust Niall and see what came of it. The first few attempts resulted in Louis landing in rather undignified heaps on the ground, in bushes or, even one time, in the lake, as he attempted to control his air manipulation. Each time, he brushed himself off and started again. He wasn’t going to give up.

So far, Louis’ training had seen him partnered up with both Harry and Zayn. Niall had created tasks for them to complete in order to see how, and if, their powers would work cohesively.

The training had also involved being pitted _against_ Harry and Zayn. In the hand-to-hand combat sessions, Louis was clearly lacking experience and often found himself pinned to the training mat by one of the others. He was willing to accept that it was an area he needed to work on and knew that it was to be expected. The rest of the team had spent years working on these skills and Louis was a long way behind them. But he just added it to the list of things that he was determined to master.

When it came to using their powers, Louis felt that things were much more even. While Harry would teleport in and out of view, Zayn would be leaping around gracefully avoiding Louis’ attacks. A friendly rivalry developed between the three of them and Louis enjoyed every second of it even though he left his training sessions sweaty, exhausted and aching. Once, he had correctly predicted where Harry would land and had produced a small tornado that wrapped him up and sent him spinning across the room while Louis laughed cheekily. Another time he had created a sheet of ice beneath Zayn so that when he landed, rather than being graceful, he slipped over immediately and fell straight onto his bum which sent Harry and Louis into a hysterical fit of laughter, especially when they saw Zayn attempting to stand up looking rather disgruntled.

More than once, Louis had seen Liam watching their training sessions. He wondered why Liam didn’t just come and join them. Maybe if he took out some of his pent up anger in a training session with them, he wouldn’t be so hostile.

For his part, Liam actually found himself curious about the new addition to their group, not that he was willing to admit that to anyone. After all, he was struggling to admit it to himself. The first time he had witnessed Louis using his powers, he had shrugged it off as fancy tricks and tried not to be impressed, but when he had allowed himself to observe his training with Harry and Zayn, he found that Louis’ powers were actually rather remarkable. It had been a while since he had seen anyone get the better of Zayn, yet Louis had left his usually unflappable friend sprawled on his arse on the floor.

While he might have grudgingly been a little impressed, he certainly wasn’t going to let anyone else see that, especially not Louis. He didn’t feel comfortable around him and he wasn’t willing to let his guard down near him, not that he let his guard down much at all anymore. Every time that Liam saw Louis he was all bright smiles and cheeky laughter and Liam just didn’t think he was taking anything seriously. How could he become a member of their team if he was going to be joking around all the time and winding the others up constantly? He seemed like a risk taker to Liam and Liam didn’t have the time to be watching his back when they were on missions if Louis was going to be flinging himself into dangerous situations just for a laugh. Liam wasn’t willing to have any of his friends put in danger by someone reckless; he wasn’t ever going to lose anyone he cared about again. If Louis put any of them in danger with his antics, Liam was personally going to kick his arse and then tell Niall to make him leave.                 

***      

After several weeks, Louis really felt like he belonged with the rest of the team. Not that he had gone out on any missions with them yet, seeing as Niall hadn’t allowed it so far. But still, he felt like things were going well.

His training was successful and the improvement in his skills was obvious. He hadn’t realised that with constant input his powers could become much more honed. Niall had told him that they were like a muscle that would only grow stronger with effort. Now, he hardly even had to think about what he was doing before he was creating a lightning bolt or covering an area with a dense fog. His powers were reacting instantly to his will and they suddenly felt much more like they were _part_ of him, physically, mentally and emotionally.

It wasn’t only his powers that were developing. His hand-to-hand combat had improved greatly too and, while he still hadn’t managed to outdo Zayn, he had bested Harry on a couple of occasions and he felt pretty good about it.

The training sessions were hard work but they always had a laugh. Louis was of the opinion that a bit of hilarity made things more enjoyable and, while he understood that ultimately they had a serious goal, he liked to lighten the mood wherever possible.

Liam had even started joining them for some of their sessions. Louis was pretty sure that that was Niall’s doing when he saw the grateful little smile on Niall’s face whenever Liam turned up to meet them. Liam would just nod at Niall and then turn back to the others with a serious expression on his face.

The first few times Liam had joined them had been weird and Louis had felt out of place. He had carefully watched the interactions between Liam, Harry and Zayn hoping to pick up some hints about how he should get Liam on side but never came away feeling anymore knowledgeable. Louis told himself that he was only watching so intently for that reason but the reality was that he was a bit in awe of Liam. Liam was obviously physically strong; the defined muscles all over his body were hard to miss. But he was also mentally powerful. Louis had gaped a little as he had watched Liam move huge objects using his mind, with what appeared to be minimal effort. It was certainly impressive and Louis often found himself thinking about it when he was away from their training sessions.

***

It was a glorious day so Niall had decided that training might as well take place outside. All of them made their way through the gardens to an area away from the house (in case of any wayward projectiles, Niall had announced) to a fairly decent sized clearing amongst the trees.

“I think it’s time for you and Liam to square off against one another,” Niall announced to Louis as he smiled brightly.

“What?” Louis replied in shock. “Do you really think that’s a good idea? I think he might have just been waiting for an opportunity to kill me and you’re just handing it to him.”

Niall rolled his eyes but was still smiling. “He isn’t going to kill you Lou. That’s against the rules.”

“Well I don’t fancy getting beaten to a pulp either,” Louis retorted with a grimace.

Niall clapped him on the back firmly. “Then move fast,” Niall told him with a cheeky grin.

Louis narrowed his eyes at Niall. “Cheers for that advice. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Niall laughed, patted Louis on the back once more and then wandered off to sit on the grass near the trees. “First one to tap out loses!” he called merrily from his position. “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

Louis was looking at him with an incredulous look on his face. Harry and Zayn had taken up positions beside Niall. The three of them looked like they should have brought some popcorn and drinks along to enjoy whilst they watched the showdown.

Louis turned around and looked across the clearing. Liam was stretching like Louis had seen him do many times before and he wondered for a moment if he should have taken things a little bit more seriously. Then he shook his head. He wasn’t like Liam; he didn’t need to take everything seriously and act like an arse to everyone. His skills had come on such a long way over the last few weeks and he knew that he could do this. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then he moved forwards.

Liam had been watching him and at Louis’ movement, he too stepped further into the clearing.

The two of them just stared at one another for a long time; it was like a scene out of an old Western, as their audience wondered who would make the first move. Both Liam and Louis seemed to decide to act at the same moment so as Liam started running towards him, Louis created a dense fog in front of him.

Louis had decided that the best way to win against Liam would be to keep out of his way (rather like he had decided to do in their day-to-day lives) so was planning to use his powers to evade Liam wherever possible. He knew that if Liam got hold of him, he was done for, seeing as Liam’s strength was far superior to his own.

As the fog settled, Louis skirted around the edge of the mist he had created so that he could be behind where Liam was standing. While he was hidden from view, the only problem was that Louis couldn’t see Liam either so he had no idea how Liam was reacting or what his next move would be.

Louis didn’t need to wait long to find out, as suddenly, seemingly from the other side of the clearing, huge branches were being hurled in his direction. There was a loud cracking sound every so often before another chunk of tree came hurtling towards him. Liam seemed to be throwing the branches at random so he obviously couldn’t see Louis but that wasn’t helping Louis as he couldn’t see Liam either.

After what seemed like an exhaustingly long time of leaping around avoiding flying branches, Louis realised that he needed to be able to get eyes on Liam. He created a powerful wind and blasted the fog away in seconds, leaving both himself and Liam visible again.

Liam spun around to face Louis. There were beads of sweat on his face and Louis was pleased that he wasn’t the only one who was finding the experience hard work.

Neither of them had chance to recover though, because Liam lifted his hand and another branch snapped off a nearby tree. Using his telekinesis, he flung the branch towards Louis forcefully. In a split second, Louis created a bolt of lightning and struck the flying branch mid-air. A huge crack ripped through the air and the branch split in half, both parts flying off in different directions until they landed on the ground as two charred pieces.

Liam narrowed his eyes at Louis in frustration. And then, with his mind, he sent out a force that started to push Louis backwards.

It was a bizarre feeling for Louis as he struggled to gain any grip on the grass beneath his feet. He could almost _feel_ Liam’s hands pushing against him, forcing him backwards, but Liam was on the other side of the clearing with his hands outstretched, not close enough to reach him. He must have looked ridiculous, pushing back against an invisible force, his feet scrabbling on the ground uselessly.

Louis twisted his head round and realised that Liam was going to pin him against the trunk of one of the trees and then he’d be trapped. It was useless trying to push back against the force and he racked his brain for a way to stop, or at least slow down, his assailant. He was steadily moving closer to the trees but he managed to lift his arms towards the sky. Quickly, he brought his arms back to his sides and a deep rumble of thunder erupted. The shockwave it caused was much more intense than the first time he had shown off his trick, thanks to Louis’ training, and the ground shook fiercely beneath his feet. He suddenly found himself falling towards the ground and only just managed to put out his hands to break his fall. Glancing up, he realised that the tremor had actually knocked Liam off balance and the force that he was using against Louis had disappeared.

Louis quickly clambered back to his feet in readiness for Liam’s next attack. However, he wasn’t prepared to be lifted completely off the ground. Liam was looking up at him determinedly as he held him suspended in the air with the power of his mind.

Louis struggled, but again he could feel an invisible force working against him. A dark cloud appeared above Liam and suddenly it was pouring with rain right above him. Within seconds, his clothes were soaked and his hair was plastered down to his head but he refused to relinquish his hold on Louis.

Louis was staring down at Liam intensely, wondering what he should try next. Liam was returning the look with an equally focused expression on his face. Just as he was wondering if Liam was planning to either throw him or drop him and he’d have to test out his novice flying ability for real, Louis heard a loud, clear voice in his head.

“Stop!” the voice commanded.

Instantly, Louis evaporated the cloud above Liam and in the same moment he found himself lowered back to the ground.

Both Liam and Louis looked at each other with equally surprised faces until Niall approached them with Harry and Zayn.    

“You stopped us?” Louis asked immediately.

Niall nodded and hummed his affirmation. “You’re obviously quite a match for one another – it was certainly interesting watching what you came up with for each other. I mean, that could have gone on all day. But I wanted you to realise something more important than just beating each other. I managed to stop you using telepathy and neither of you saw it coming. I know, _technically_ , I wasn’t supposed to be involved but there’s no good being so absorbed in each other that you don’t notice someone creeping up on you.” He threw both of them a pointed look and Louis wondered what the hell that was supposed to mean before he continued. “I think we should all head inside. I’m sure you two want to get freshened up.”

Harry, Niall and Zayn turned and started wandering back towards the house. Louis and Liam lingered for a moment, they looked at each other but didn’t hold the eye contact for long. Then they set off to follow the others back inside in silence.

***

A few days after Liam and Louis’ training session, Niall had invited Louis down to the basement. It wasn’t part of his scheduled training routine so Louis was curious what Niall wanted with him.

Once they were in the basement, Niall led Louis through to the equipment room, grinned widely at him and then presented him with a suit bag.

“I really hope this isn’t a tuxedo,” Louis said with a raised eyebrow.

Niall laughed brightly. “Take a look,” he waved his hand at the zipper.

Louis looked at him questioningly but reached for the zip eagerly. He hooked his fingers around it and pulled it down a few centimetres. After peeking inside, he looked up at Niall sharply.

Niall was still grinning manically and nodded enthusiastically.

Louis looked back at the bag and pulled the zip all the way down. Sliding the suit bag away completely, he pulled out the outfit concealed inside. The suit was the same style as the ones he had seen the others wearing for missions; his was a bright blue, edged with silver.

He swallowed thickly as he ran his fingers across the material of the suit.

“I thought blue would be a good colour for you – I hope you like it,” Niall said, shaking Louis out of his thoughts.

Louis looked up at him, a smile playing on his lips and his eyes sparkling with excitement. “I love it,” he replied. “Does this mean…am I…part of the team?”

Niall laughed and patted him on the shoulder firmly. “You’ve been part of the team for a while Lou, but now I guess it’s official. You’re all ready to go now. You’ll be going out with the lads next time they go on a mission.”

The beaming smile on Louis’ face was enough to tell Niall that his friend was delighted and he laughed again. “Come on, you’d better take that upstairs and try it on.”

It seemed impossible but somehow Louis’ smile grew even wider. He carefully draped the suit over his arm and walked back towards the lift with Niall.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the lovely feedback so far - I truly appreciate it. As my way of showing you just how grateful I am, here is the next chapter! I told you feedback makes me work more quickly! :)

 “What’s up Ni?” Harry asked as he plonked himself down in the chair next to Niall’s. Louis approached the computer station too, downing a bottle of water after his workout with Harry.

Niall was staring intently at one of the computer screens. “There’s been another report of a missing mutant in the city. That’s the third one in two months.” He glanced over at Harry beside him and chewed on his lower lip agitatedly. “There’s something weird going on and I don’t like it.”

“We should look into it then,” Harry announced. “We might be able to find something that the police are missing.”

Niall nodded his agreement but before he could say anymore on the subject, an alert starting flashing on the screen and Niall’s phone starting beeping in his pocket. He quickly read the message before turning to face Louis. “Looks like it’s time to get suited up,” he said with a wink.

All three of them ran towards the equipment room and grabbed their suits from their respective positions hanging along the wall.

Just as Louis was pushing his arms through his sleeves, Liam and Zayn came bursting into the room to grab their own suits. Louis didn’t miss the look that Liam sent in his direction as he pulled up the zip of his suit but he couldn’t worry about Liam’s issue with him right now, he had to focus on the task at hand.

The five of them piled into the car with Harry in the driver’s seat. He sped out of the parking area of the basement and through a tunnel before they burst out into bright sunshine.

“There’s a bank robbery in progress. Armed suspects have civilians trapped inside as hostages. The police are reporting that there’s already been one shooting, a security guard, and they can’t risk any further injuries,” Niall informed them as they headed into the city at high speed. “The priority is to protect and rescue the hostages, catching the bad guys is our secondary objective.”

The whole team nodded in understanding. Liam asked several questions to find out more about the situation and Louis could hardly believe it – he didn’t think he’d heard Liam use so many words the whole time he’d been living with them, let alone all in one conversation. He was obviously passionate about what he did; he obviously wanted to be the very best.

When they arrived at the scene, there were police cars parked in the street outside the bank and armed officers scurrying about. There were other police officers ensuring that members of the public and the press were kept back behind a cordon.

The five of them climbed out of the car and Niall immediately approached the officer in charge requesting an update. When he returned he looked serious but determined.

“Right, there are three guys in there. They’re all armed. It’s unclear how many hostages there are, reports are suggesting around twenty. The gang are negotiating with the police but while they’re focused on that, we should be able to sneak in. There’s a secondary staff entrance to the rear, so I suggest we head for that. Haz, you’ll be able to teleport in, take Zayn along with you, and catch them by surprise while the rest of us come in the usual way. Liam, you can take care of the door.”

They all ran to the back of the building and prepared for action. With synchronised actions, Liam slammed into the door, knocking it down, as Harry grabbed Zayn and they both disappeared.

There were angry shouts from inside as the criminals realised that someone was entering the building. The three of them all moved in the direction of the door but then spun round with wide eyes when Harry and Zayn appeared behind them. One of them raised his gun but before he could fire, a powerful wind had whipped up inside the foyer of the bank and the man was carried across the room, landing in a heap against the wall, his gun skidding across the polished floor. Harry winked at Louis, whose hands were still outstretched, in appreciation before he quickly made his way towards the cowering hostages. He spoke calmly to them before taking several of them by the hand and disappearing from sight along with his passengers. 

The other two men looked furious and they both raised their weapons. They started firing, causing Louis, Niall and Liam to scatter out of the way before they were hit. Zayn leapt up and kicked one of them in the back of the leg, causing the man to crumple to the floor. He was tough though and he spun around where he was lying and began firing at Zayn. Zayn’s agility allowed him to dive out of the way but his attacker continued firing.

From his position behind a desk, Niall reached out to the mind of the man. The rage was a powerful force at the front of the man’s mind, the desire to shoot Zayn and escape was almost overwhelming but Niall pushed through those emotions. He spoke calmly inside the man’s head, telling him to stop firing and to drop his weapon. The man complied instantly and Zayn dived forward to snatch the gun away from his reach.

Harry had been quietly removing the terrified customers from the bank and had nearly rescued them all when the remaining robber turned his gun towards the small group that was left. One of the women screamed as a bullet exploded from his gun but then the bullet seemed to stop in midair. Liam was standing to the side with an intensely focused expression on his face, his hand was shaking as it reached out in the direction of the bullet. Then, the bullet suddenly dropped to the floor harmlessly with a clatter.

“You fucking freak,” the enraged criminal yelled as he stepped towards Liam. He continued moving forwards quickly, only to suddenly slip over and fall backwards with a thump.

The floor was covered in a sheet of ice and Liam looked over at Louis with an unreadable expression on his face.

Louis felt like offering him a sarcastic, “You’re welcome,” but thought better of it and held his tongue.

Zayn was the best equipped for dealing with the man now as he nimbly made his way over the patch of ice towards the irate would-be robber. He was just about to grab for the gun when the man managed to reach it first, he swung his arm towards Zayn and squeezed the trigger. In such close proximity even Zayn would have struggled to get out of the way, but as the weapon fired, Harry appeared alongside Zayn and in the blink of an eye the two of them had vanished.

Liam looked furious as he pounded over to the man who was still lying on his back, arm outstretched with the gun in his hand. The weapon was wrenched from his fingers before Liam even got close and crushed into an unrecognisable lump. When Liam reached the other man, he grabbed hold of his jacket, pulled him up and then punched him in the face. There was a crack as bones broke beneath Liam’s fist and the man’s eyes rolled back in his head. Liam dropped him to the floor with a look of anger and disgust before he scanned the room to check on his teammates. Realising that all of them were standing around the room in one piece, all three of the criminals were incapacitated and all of the civilians were safe, his face fell back to its careful, calm expression.  

Eventually, the five of them made their way out of the bank with the three robbers restrained. After a debriefing with the police, they headed back towards the car. The journey back to the house was filled with excited chatter and recounts of the ‘best’ parts of their mission. They were all full of enthusiasm apart from Liam who was his usual quiet self. Harry had opted out of driving home and had left the responsibility to Liam, who seemed quite content to zone out of the animated conversation going on around him and focus on the road.

When they got home, they all made their way to the equipment room to shed their suits. As they pulled their casual clothing back on, Harry continued congratulating Louis on a job well done for his first mission.

“I think we should celebrate tonight,” he said excitedly.

“We could go out somewhere special for dinner,” Zayn suggested.

Louis was more than a little pleased that the others were so impressed with his contributions to their mission but when he caught sight of the scowl on Liam’s face his elation was squashed.

As soon as he’d dropped his suit into the laundry basket, Liam stomped out of the equipment room. This time it was Harry that quickly went after him, as he too was already changed back into his regular clothes.

Louis, Niall and Zayn could hear them talking outside.

“Are you going to come out with us tonight Li?” Harry asked. He sounded hopeful but Louis was pretty sure he knew what the answer was going to be.

“Why would I do that?” Liam answered gruffly.

“To celebrate,” Harry repeated. “We did well today; the bad guys are locked up, we saved everyone. Louis had a really successful first mission…”

“Successful?” Liam echoed. “He nearly got Zayn shot with that stupid stunt with the ice. I’d hardly call that _successful_.”

“But Zayn didn’t get hurt, so what’s the problem?” Harry asked.

“It was reckless and it’s things like that that get people killed.” Liam told him angrily.

“Well it was also what stopped _you_ getting shot, so Louis saved you,” Harry said.

“I don’t _need_ saving,” Liam erupted immediately.

There was silence outside the room as Niall looked at Louis almost nervously and Zayn suddenly found his suit deeply fascinating. The sound of heavy footsteps signalled Liam’s departure and then Harry reappeared in the doorway. He looked troubled as he shared a sad look with Niall but he forced a smile onto his face as he made eye contact with Louis.

“What do you fancy for dinner? It’s your choice,” he said, with slightly false cheeriness.

“We really don’t have to go out you know,” Louis replied. He didn’t want to be the reason for any trouble between this group that had been friends long before he’d come along. He was already well aware that Liam didn’t like him and he knew that his presence was causing some tension so he really didn’t want to add to that.

“Yeah we do mate,” Zayn piped up. “No arguments, we’re celebrating you being a fully-fledged member of this team. It’s really official now - you’ve saved lives and everything!”

Louis huffed out a laugh. “Go on then, you’ve twisted my arm. How do you feel about a curry?”

***

Days past, then weeks and Louis had been out on several missions with the other lads. Each one was different; some incidents were more serious, while others were easily dealt with. Sometimes Niall would join them in the field and on other occasions he would stay at the house to direct them using the communications system he had set up.

One thing stayed the same though and that was the way that Liam treated Louis. He kept him at arm’s length and Louis couldn’t help but think that if Liam had his way, he’d probably keep Louis on the other side of the country.

The only time they really communicated was when they were on missions. Louis didn’t miss the incredulous, and often irritated, looks that Liam sent his way whenever he did anything remotely risky. Louis was well aware that he was impetuous but he would _never_ have done anything that would endanger the lives of any of the rest of the team or any civilians that they were dealing with. But Liam obviously thought that Louis was a hazard to them all. If he wasn’t ignoring Louis, he was shooting looks of scorn in his direction.

On one or two rare occasions, Louis had felt the burn of someone’s eyes staring at him and had looked up to find Liam watching him intently. In those unusual moments, Liam didn’t look like he wanted to punch Louis. He actually looked like he was trying to figure something out; he looked like he was lost in thought. But as soon as Louis caught his eye, he would tear his gaze away and his expression would slip back to the less than impressed look that Louis was used to seeing. Louis had no idea what was going through Liam’s mind and he was pretty sure that he didn’t want to know.

***

When Louis’ phone started beeping he knew what it meant without having to check the screen. He quickly made his way to the basement and joined Harry, Liam and Zayn pulling their suits on. Niall was hovering in the doorway relaying information as they got changed.

“Facial recognition on our surveillance system has picked up David Miller. He’s been wanted for the past year for the murder of his ex-girlfriend but there’ve been no sightings of him in months. It seems like he’s resurfaced and he’s heading into the city on foot. He’s a mutant with water manipulation abilities and he’s shown that he’s not concerned with hurting people – the last time the police tried to apprehend him, he nearly drowned several officers,” Niall warned as they started to file past him towards the car. “I’ll keep you up to date over the comms.”

Liam was in charge of driving and they zipped along at high speed following the directions that Niall was sending them.

As they approached a bridge over the river, Liam slowed the car to a crawl as Niall informed them that Miller was in the vicinity. They caught sight of him just as he started walking onto the bridge and Liam stopped the car. The four of them climbed out and set off after him, not wanting to alert him to their presence yet.

“Do we really think this is wise?” Louis asked as they walked. “We’re about to tackle a water manipulator right above a _river_. Doesn’t anyone else think that this is playing into his hands a bit?”

Liam cast a withering look at him. “We can’t risk him getting any closer to the city. The more people that are around, the more people will be at risk. We take him out now.”

Louis could see the logic behind that but he still didn’t like the idea. However, he wasn’t in a position to argue with Liam so continued forwards with the rest of the team.

They moved quickly and were soon close enough behind him to make themselves known. “David Miller,” Liam called out. “We’re here to take you into custody.”

Miller stopped in his tracks and turned around slowly. He eyed the group before him and sneered.

Liam took a step forward and Miller stretched out his arms. A surge of water came rushing from his hands straight for them and they all scattered. Miller kept up the stream of water, following them wherever they moved. He managed to create two separate blasts, one with each hand, which meant that he could keep them at bay. Louis and Liam didn’t have time to stand still for long enough to create any form of offensive and Harry was so busy disappearing and reappearing in various places attempting to avoid the water that he couldn’t get close.

One of the high-velocity streams caught up with Louis at one point and knocked him off his feet, sending him rolling across the bridge. He had never realised how powerful water could be, but as he struggled to catch his breath, he knew that this man couldn’t be underestimated. Both Liam and Harry were soaked and Liam’s suit was ripped where the water had caught up with him and actually shredded straight through the material.  

As Miller was focused on the other three, Zayn leapt up onto the barrier at the edge of the bridge and scampered along it gracefully. He used it as a walkway and found himself close to Miller without him even realising. From his higher point, he leapt down and wrapped his arms around their attacker from behind. The streams of water ceased as Miller struggled against Zayn’s strong grip.

Zayn was clinging on tightly as Miller tried to shake him off, but then the other man somehow managed to elbow Zayn in the ribs and as the hold on him was loosened, Miller twisted around where he was standing. Zayn straightened enough to punch him in the face but it wasn’t enough to stop the blast of water that erupted from Miller’s hands. The full force of the water hit Zayn square in the chest and he flew backwards like a ragdoll.

For a moment, it seemed like time had frozen as Zayn’s red and gold clad body twisted through the air. His teammates watched on in stunned horror as the water pushed him over the railing of the bridge before dispersing, leaving Zayn to plummet downwards out of view.

“Zayn!” Liam roared and it was almost as if he had flown across the bridge himself because he was leaning over the railing in an instant. His arms were outstretched as he focused everything on preventing his friend from crashing into the river below. Zayn’s limp body was suspended in mid-air once Liam had managed to stop his descent and then he concentrated on carefully drawing Zayn back up. As he did so, he turned his furious face towards where Miller was still standing watching him with a smirk on his face. He obviously thought that Zayn had fallen to his death. He turned around then and lifted his arms. Further downstream, a huge wave rose out of the river at his command and starting heading towards the bridge at a terrifying speed. If it struck while they were standing on the bridge they would all be washed away.

Liam’s eyes widened before they flicked to where Louis and Harry were standing together watching, concern for Zayn still all over their faces.

“ _Hit_ _him_ ,” Liam commanded firmly.

Both Louis and Harry were jolted into action. They obviously both thought that Liam’s order was directed at them because they both reacted at the same moment.

Just as Louis created a bolt of lightning and sent it straight at Miller, Harry appeared right beside him.

It was an awful moment as Louis watched the electrical current strike Miller in the chest and send him spinning away, because in the same moment Harry was flung to the side from the force of the blast. His body crumpled and he lay unmoving on the ground. The roaring wave that Miller had created crashed back down into the river leaving everything suddenly eerily silent.

“Harry! Oh shit, Harry,” Louis was calling as he ran towards him. He fell to his knees beside his injured friend and immediately shook him in an attempt to rouse him. There was a tear along the arm of Harry’s suit and the skin of his arm was marred with a branching, red mark that ironically looked a lot like a lightning strike.

“Harry? _Harry_? Please wake up, I’m so sorry, please wake up,” Louis was begging and still shaking his friend desperately.

The groan that came from Harry was possibly the best thing that Louis had ever heard. “Wuh…what…happened?” Harry managed to say as he squinted up at Louis in confusion.

“You got caught by my lightning. God, I’m so sorry Harry. Are you alright? Are you in pain?” Louis’ hands were fluttering across Harry like he didn’t know what to do for the best. He _didn’t_ know what to do. “Niall?” he called, knowing that Niall was connected to them all by their earpieces and the communication set-up within their suits.

“Go ahead Lou,” Niall responded in his ear.

“We need help. Miller’s down but Harry and Zayn are going to need medical attention,” Louis informed him, trying to keep his voice calm.

“Ambulance is already on its way to you Louis,” Niall replied. “Keep them both calm, keep talking to them. I’m monitoring their vitals from here.”

Louis breathed out a sigh of relief at Niall’s calm words. He glanced over his shoulder to see Liam supporting Zayn against the barrier of the bridge. He was talking to him quietly, rubbing his arms gently.

Louis turned back to Harry who looked like he was about to fall asleep, his eyes drooping heavily. Louis shook him gently again.

“It’s not time for a nap yet,” he said with a weak smile.

“’m tired though,” Harry protested. “And my arm hurts.”

“I know,” Louis said softly. “But help’s on the way and then you can get some rest.”

He could hear the sound of sirens approaching and he focused on that to keep himself calm. He turned around to check on Zayn again and found Liam staring at him. His mouth was set into a grim line, his jaw was clenched. He looked like he was about to explode with barely contained rage and Louis was sure that if Harry and Zayn weren’t hurt, Liam would have walked up to him and punched him. Louis shook his head sadly as he turned back to Harry. Everything had been going so well, despite Liam’s dislike of him, but now it seemed like irreparable damage had been done.

***

Louis was sitting on his bed in his room – alone.

They had all returned from the hospital, weary and sore. Niall had driven down to meet them there and had spoken with the doctors about Zayn and Harry’s injuries. Zayn had two cracked ribs thanks to the sheer force of the water and was generally feeling bruised. Harry had suffered some burns to his arm and some (fortunately minor) nerve damage from the current. He had been lucky: Miller had received the full force of Louis’ blast and was now lying on a slab in the morgue. Both Zayn and Harry had been released from the hospital and allowed home but both of them were under strict instructions to rest.

The drive back to the house had been awful. Liam took Zayn and Harry in one car, while Louis travelled back with Niall, not wanting to be near Liam and not knowing how to face Harry. Not a lot had been said by any of them and when they had arrived home, Louis had taken himself upstairs straight away.

He had been sitting on his bed for a long time. He had removed his suit and left it in a pile on the floor as he pulled on a loose pair of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. He felt terrible. The guilt of what he had done, however unintentionally, was weighing on him heavily. And an awful realisation had come to him: he was going to have to leave. The others would want him gone after what he had done. Liam had never wanted him there in the first place, had been looking for a reason to get rid of him since he arrived, and now he had every reason to demand that he left. The thought of it left Louis feeling hollow. He loved it here, he loved living and working with these men. For the first time in so long he felt like he had a purpose; he felt like he belonged. And now it was all ruined. He didn’t know how he was supposed to go back to his old life after being part of something so amazing and worthwhile.

He pushed himself off the bed suddenly and marched to his wardrobe. He flung the doors open and pulled out his duffel bag. Just as he threw it onto the bed and unzipped it, there was a quiet knock on his bedroom door. He stilled in his actions and turned to face the door. He braced himself for what was to come before he called out, “Come in.”

Louis was surprised to find that it was Harry who pushed the door open and stepped into his room. He looked tired and incredibly pale. His arm was still bandaged and he held it slightly awkwardly.

“Harry, what are you doing up? You’re supposed to be resting,” Louis told him.

“I know,” Harry replied. “And I will go and rest, but I had to come and see you first.”

Louis hung his head and drew in a few deep breaths. Eventually, he looked up and held Harry’s eye contact for a long moment. “Haz, I’m so sorry. I know that isn’t enough to make up for what I did but I want you to know that I never meant to hurt you. I’m so, so sorry.”

Harry looked confused. “What are you talking about Lou?” he asked. “You don’t need to apologise.”

“Yes I do,” Louis told him. “You could’ve been killed. I _hurt_ you.”

“Not on purpose though,” Harry argued. “You don’t need to apologise to me.”

“I do though…” Louis started but Harry cut him off.

“What’s that?” His eyes were fixed on the open bag on Louis’ bed. “What are you doing?”

Louis looked at him guiltily.

“You’re _leaving_?” Harry asked and he sounded outraged.

Louis couldn’t look him in the eyes so he focused on the carpet instead. “I thought you’d all want me to go.”

“Louis, this is crazy,” Harry said desperately. “How could you think that? It was an accident. It was my fault as much as yours. I thought Liam was telling me to deal with Miller and you thought the same. It was just a mistake. Do you honestly think that this is the first time that something like this has happened?”

Louis finally looked up at those words and Harry gave him a wry smile.

“We’ve all ended up hurting each other unintentionally at one time or another. We all feel bad about it but you have to learn from it and move on.”

“But you’re like this well-oiled machine and I don’t want to mess that up,” Louis said as he shook his head.

“You don’t mess it up Lou,” Harry said fondly. “You’ve brought so much to this team. Things have been so much better since you came and joined us. You can’t leave us - we _need_ you.”

“I’m not so sure Liam would agree with you,” Louis grumbled.

The smile on Harry’s face slipped at that and he looked sad for a moment before he composed his expression.

“He’s going to want me gone after this,” Louis continued. “He already hated me, now he’ll positively despise me.”

“He doesn’t hate you,” Harry said quietly. “He just…he has some demons…and he needs time. He’s not a bad person. He’s one of my best friends and…just give him some time Lou.”

Louis looked at Harry and wondered what he wasn’t saying. He wondered what demons Liam had and why the others all seemed to let him be quiet and brooding so much of the time. He also realised that he’d be a fool to walk away from people who were so loyal to one another.

He gave Harry a small smile and nodded his head slightly. “You need to get to bed.”

“I’ll only go if you promise to still be here in the morning,” Harry said with a half-serious look on his face.

“I promise I’ll be here Haz. I’m not going anywhere,” Louis reassured him.

“Good,” Harry said as he backed out of the door, “because you belong here.”

Louis’ smile widened; he really liked the sound of that.


	4. Chapter 3

It had been a quiet few weeks for the team as Harry and Zayn recovered from their injuries and Niall refused to let them go out on any missions. As a result, _none of_ _them_ went out on any missions. Niall said that if they weren’t all together, they just weren’t a team.

No-one had mentioned anything about Louis leaving. Even Liam had been notably quiet about it. Louis had been expecting a full-blown telling off from Liam after what had happened but no such thing had occurred. He wondered which one of the lads had told Liam to drop it; whoever it was, he was extremely grateful. The guilt he still felt about accidently injuring Harry was enough in his own mind without Liam adding to it and threatening to kick him out.

The enforced downtime meant that Niall had been able to spend some time looking into the missing mutants that he had been monitoring for several months. He was trying to establish a pattern in the disappearances but nothing was obvious. It concerned him that mutants seemed to be being targeted. As he had looked into the reports further, he had found that there were actually more missing mutants than he had initially been aware of. He had originally thought that there were only three but after going back further through police reports, he’d actually discovered at least seven disappearances over the last year. And that was only people that had been reported: what if there were other mutants that no-one had informed the police about?

One of the missing mutants _had_ been found. But it hadn’t been good news. The body of a young male empath had been discovered in an alleyway in the city. According to the police report, he had looked emaciated, his skin paper-thin and littered with bruises, including angry red wounds around his wrists indicating that he’d been restrained for some time. The actual cause of his death was unclear. Niall had shuddered as he had read the report; something about it made his skin crawl. He had shared his concerns with the rest of the team and they had all agreed that it was something that they should look into.

***

Louis had spent a lot of time training by himself while Zayn and Harry were taking it easy. He was looking forward to them getting back on their feet as he was getting pretty lonely during his workouts. He missed the banter and jokes they shared and generally just missed having company.

When he arrived in the basement one morning, he made his way towards the gym. As he pushed the door open and stepped a few paces inside, he stopped in his tracks when he realised that Liam was already there.

Liam had his shirtless back to the door. His hands gripped a bar above his head as he pulled himself up and down. The muscles in his back strained against his skin and sweat rolled down his spine with each movement. For a moment, Louis was frozen in place. His mouth had gone inexplicably dry and he knew his eyes were wide as he drank in the sight of Liam’s muscular body.

It suddenly struck him that Liam was bloody gorgeous. The realisation was a bit of a shock for some reason. Maybe he’d spent so long trying to understand why Liam was so cold towards him and seemingly so shutdown that he’d missed the obvious. Louis licked his lips and backed away from the scene before him. He really didn’t want to get caught staring and he was sure that he couldn’t focus on anything in the gym while Liam was there, all hot and sweaty. Besides, he was also sure that Liam wouldn’t be keen to share his workout time with Louis, since he obviously wasn’t a fan.

As he backed away, he collided with the edge of the door that hadn’t closed fully behind him and caused it to bang.

“Shit,” he muttered as Liam released the bar and whipped around to face him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” he added, looking up at Liam and trying to focus on his face rather than his sweat-slicked chest.

Liam watched him without speaking for what seemed like an eternity to Louis who was desperate to escape. “Did you want me?” he asked eventually.

Louis’ eyes widened at the question, then he shook his head a little trying to shake inappropriate thoughts from his mind. “Um, no…no, I just…I was going to use the treadmill but I can…um, go outside,” he trailed off and wondered why he was suddenly so incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together.

Liam’s eyebrow lifted slightly. “It’s raining,” he said simply.

“Oh…yeah, I know that. Um, I’ll probably give it a miss then,” Louis replied. He made to back away again hoping to walk out without crashing into anything else but Liam’s voice stopped him.

“You should stay,” he said. “I mean…if you want to. You don’t have to leave just ‘cause I’m here.”

Louis blinked at him rapidly in confusion. “Stay?” he asked, then cleared his throat. “I don’t want to get in your way.”

Liam shrugged slightly. “You won’t. There’s plenty of space down here.”

“Okay,” Louis said as he stepped back into the room a little more. “Okay.”

Liam nodded once before turning back towards the bar and Louis quickly averted his eyes. It was one thing being asked to stay, it was another thing entirely to stare at Liam while he was working out. He made his way over to the treadmill, set it up and hopped on. Hopefully, a good run would take his mind off other things that threatened to distract him.

Quite a while later, Niall wandered into the gym. He looked between where Liam was now lifting weights to where Louis was lying on a mat doing crunches and his eyebrows raised in surprise. As he made his way over to a bike, he smiled curiously at Louis and sent a questioning look at Liam. Both of them nodded once at him in acknowledgement and returned their focus to what they were doing.

When Louis left the gym much later, he felt really good. He’d had a successful workout and even though there hadn’t exactly been a deep and meaningful conversation between himself and Liam, he still felt like actually being able to stay in the same room was definitely progress.

***

Once Harry and Zayn were back to full fitness and ready to go back out with the team, Niall was keen to get them investigating the missing mutants. Unfortunately, they didn’t even get chance to start before Niall received a report that a second body had been found.

The five of them made their way to an empty warehouse on an industrial estate on the outskirts of the city. The police were already there, swarming all over the building and around the outside, painstakingly searching for evidence. They were led inside the building and taken towards the back wall, where a crumpled body was lying on the floor. All five of them watched sadly as the medical examiner looked over the body. The detective leading the investigation spoke as they continued watching.

“We’ve had a positive ID that this is Cameron Walker. He was 22, working as a trainee solicitor for a firm in the city. His body was discovered this morning by the security patrol so we know he was left here some time between this morning’s early patrol and yesterday’s.”

“Based on the condition of the body, I would estimate that he has been dead for around three days,” the medical examiner supplied.

“Any idea of cause of death, doctor?” the detective asked.

The medical examiner shook his head. “Nothing obvious I’m afraid, until I get him back to autopsy. The body is in the same condition as the last mutant we discovered: he seems terribly gaunt - almost shrunken - bruising in various places, abrasions around the wrists.”

Niall was making notes as the men spoke. When they seemed to have finished, he asked his own question. “Do you know what his mutation was?”

The detective flicked through his own paperwork. “Fire manipulation,” he replied.

A strange stiffness seemed to sweep over Niall, Harry and Zayn as they all immediately looked towards Liam, whose eyes had glazed over as he continued to stare at the body of the murdered mutant before them. Louis had no idea what was going on – the atmosphere had changed so suddenly.

“Li…” Zayn started, but Liam just shook his head, turned on his heel and walked swiftly away from the scene.

Harry, Niall and Zayn shared a concerned look before Zayn quickly followed Liam out of the warehouse. Louis looked at Niall and Harry hoping for some sort of explanation but received nothing.

They finished up at the scene quickly and made their way out to the car. They found Liam and Zayn leaning against the bonnet; Liam was staring off into the distance, Zayn a quiet presence beside him.

At their approach, Zayn looked up and smiled weakly. Liam didn’t make eye contact with any of them, he merely moved to the front passenger seat and slid into the car.

Louis watched him as he went. He could see some terrible pain in Liam’s downcast eyes and he suddenly realised that Liam’s cold exterior wasn’t just about him being an ignorant arsehole, it was motivated by something much deeper. He felt an almost overwhelming desire to find out what it was that had hurt Liam so much and a strange urge to help him recover.

***

After they had eaten their evening meal and cleared away, Louis decided to go for a walk to clear his head. Liam had been absent from dinner which was a shame seeing as he’d actually started joining them regularly over the last few weeks. No-one had remarked on his empty spot at the table and again Louis felt like he was missing some vital piece of a complex puzzle.

He wandered into the gardens and set off at a steady pace across the lawns. It was a pleasantly warm evening, the sort of night that was perfect for a barbeque or sitting around drinking.

Louis was just approaching the lake when he stumbled to a halt. Sitting beside the lake, facing the water, was Liam. He didn’t seem to have been disturbed by Louis’ presence and, for a moment, Louis considered walking back the way he had just come and leaving Liam alone with his thoughts. But something inside Louis wouldn’t allow it and he found himself approaching the water before he felt like he’d even made a conscious decision.

When he reached the edge of the lake, he stood alongside Liam and stared out across the water. Liam looked up at him slowly but didn’t speak.

As he looked down at him, Louis thought that he looked sad and again he felt a desire to help him in some way.

“Do you mind if I sit down?” he asked eventually.

Liam’s eyes drifted back over to the lake. “I’m not very good company,” he replied.

Louis wondered if Liam meant that about himself just on this occasion or in general. He was beginning to realise that there was a lot more beneath the surface of Liam than he had realised. But there was also a lot more to _him_ than met the eye too. Maybe that was how he could help Liam. He sat down beside him on the grass and looked out over the water.

Louis blew out a long breath. “Do you know why I agreed to join this team?” he asked. He wasn’t sure if Liam would answer him or want to participate in any form of conversation. When he received no response, he decided to just carry on talking anyway.

“It probably sounds cheesy but I accepted Niall’s offer because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to have a purpose and I wanted to help people.”

Still Liam didn’t speak, but his eyes had moved to focus on the patch of grass beside Louis’ leg.

“A few years ago…” Louis began and then he had to clear his throat and shake his head a little. He hadn’t told anyone what he was about to say in a long time. “A few years ago, my sister was walking home from her friend’s house. Some bloke attacked her and…he killed her.”

Liam’s eyes had snapped up to Louis’ face at those words. They were wide in shock as he stared at Louis.

Louis swallowed thickly. “I couldn’t save her. I wasn’t there and I couldn’t help her. If I’d offered to pick her up, or if she hadn’t gone out that evening, or if I’d been there, I could’ve stopped it happening. I could have done _something_. And I started to wonder, what was the point in having these amazing powers if I couldn’t even use them for anything? I couldn’t even use them to save my own sister.

I was angry and confused and so lost in my own head for such a long time. I was angry with myself for not being… _better_ …for not using what I had to help her…to help anyone. I wanted to do something to make the world a better place, to stop someone else from coming home to find out that _their_ sister had been murdered…I thought that if I could help even just _one_ person that would be a start…but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, how I was supposed to make a difference.

Then Niall came along and told me about this team. He told me that I could do something about it and that I could work alongside you lads and make a difference and I knew it was what I wanted to do.”

Liam hadn’t taken his eyes off Louis while he was speaking. His brow was furrowed now and he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Then he tried again.

“I’m so sorry Louis. I had no idea…about your sister. That’s… awful,” he finally said.

Louis gave a tiny nod of his head and chewed on his bottom lip for a moment.

“I know you don’t like me very much.” Liam opened his mouth as if to interrupt but Louis ploughed on. “I know you don’t like me very much,” he repeated. “And I know that I sometimes do crazy things that you think are dangerous and I know that you think that I’m not taking it seriously, but I really, really am. I would never do anything to put anyone in danger. I want to do the best job that I can. But…I can’t take everything seriously all the time, I can’t allow myself to think too much about what I’ve lost and what I could still lose, so being loud and silly and sometimes a bit reckless makes me feel better. It helps to keep me going when I feel like I might give in.”

For a long time, neither of them spoke. Liam was still watching Louis closely, his eyes travelling across Louis’ face like he was trying to figure something out.

Louis was just thinking about pushing himself off the grass and walking back to the house when Liam’s shoulders slumped.

“You’re very different to me, you know,” Liam said quietly.

Louis was a little startled at the words. He hadn’t been expecting much from Liam. He viewed Liam as the strong, silent type so was fully prepared to walk away from their one-sided conversation without much input from the other man. But he had at least hoped that Liam would understand him a little more and would maybe reconsider his opinion of Louis. He had also hoped that maybe Liam would be able to talk to him, confide in him, at some point in the future.

“I know that people deal with things in different ways but you…well I guess you’ve done a better job of it than me. I suppose I’m not very good at dealing with my emotions,” Liam continued and Louis hardly dared breathe in case he stopped talking now that he had finally started.

“Before you came, there was someone else on our team. His name was Andy. He could manipulate fire. And he…he was my…I loved him. But…he died…on a mission.”

Liam was obviously struggling to get his words out and Louis wondered if he had kept this story locked inside his chest for as long as he had kept his own tale hidden.

“That was over two years ago. I think I maybe had some sort of, I don’t know, some sort of breakdown after he died, everything seems kind of blurry in my memory but I know that the last few years have been hard…really hard. I don’t know how, or why, the others have stood by me for so long. I’ve been a terrible friend to them. They lost him too…he was their friend and they lost him. And I’ve been so consumed by my own grief that I’ve lashed out at them and pushed them away so many times. But I just don’t know what else to do, how else to act anymore.”

Louis couldn’t listen to Liam be so hard on himself without interrupting. “They’ve stood by you because they’re your friends,” he said gently. “You can’t blame yourself for reacting like you have…I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you…I don’t know how I would deal with something like that.”

Liam didn’t speak for a while. His eyes roamed across the lake and the trees in the distance and Louis allowed him the time to get his thoughts organised without pressing him for more. He knew that he had made a massive breakthrough with Liam by hearing him talk so openly and if that was all he was going to get he could accept that.

“I think I’ve tried to push people away, to keep them at a distance because it’s safer,” Liam said into the silence. “If you don’t let anyone get close to you, it doesn’t hurt so much when you lose them – at least that’s what I’ve tried telling myself. Like, maybe it’s easier to be on your own. But…it doesn’t work like that. And…I’m scared…I’m scared that one day I’ll push them too far away and they’ll be sick of me, or worse, one day, what if something happens to one of them and I lose them too?”

A lot of things were slotting into place in Louis’ mind. He could picture Liam giving them all the cold shoulder, he understood the silent conversations the others were having as they exchanged concerned glances, he knew why Liam reacted so violently when his friends were in danger or hurt. Everything Liam did was motivated by the fact that he was terrified of caring about someone and then having them cruelly snatched away from him.      

Louis sighed deeply. There were no promises that he could make to Liam. He couldn’t tell him that everything would be alright and that his friends would be safe forever – no-one could guarantee something like that. “I don’t know if you realise it but Harry, Niall and Zayn love you. They love you like a brother and I’m pretty sure that they will stand by you through anything. Nothing you can do will push them away – I’m pretty sure about that. And they know that you love them too; it’s obvious, maybe not in what you say, but it’s clear in your actions and the way you look at them.”

Louis looked at Liam steadily for a while before he continued, “It’s impossible to know what the future holds, and I’m not saying that I have the answers to how you should move on, but I don’t think that you should become obsessed with what _might_ happen. I think that maybe it’s better to live your life surrounded by the people who care about you rather than spend your time pushing them away only to realise one day that you’ve made a terrible mistake. You need to live for the now so you don’t regret it when you look back on your time.”

After he had finished speaking, Louis fell silent. He didn’t know what else he could say and he had no idea whether his words had had any impact on Liam at all.

Liam looked at him thoughtfully for a while before he looked back out over the lake without speaking.

Neither of them moved nor spoke for a long time, both lost in their own thoughts and painful memories that had been brought to the surface for the first time in a long while.

Eventually, Louis placed his hands onto the ground. “I’m going to head back inside,” he said quietly so as not to disturb the calm that had settled around them.

Liam just nodded but didn’t make any attempt to stand up.

Pushing himself up, Louis brushed the grass off his jeans before turning to walk away from the lake-side.

“Louis.”

He heard his name called from behind him and he stopped and slowly turned around.

The expression on Liam’s face was the softest look Louis had seen sent in his direction since he had known the other man. There was still a deep seriousness on his face and there was no hint of a smile but his eyes were kinder.

Knowing that Liam might be struggling to find the words to say, Louis simply nodded at him and smiled faintly. He was rewarded by Liam mirroring the gesture. Then he turned around again and wandered back towards the house.

Despite having opened up about things that he preferred to keep buried and finding out the distressing reasons for Liam’s behaviour, he felt lighter somehow as he made his way inside.

***

There was a subtle change in the atmosphere in the house over the next few days. It wasn’t as if Liam had come bounding down the stairs the day after his conversation with Louis and suddenly become the life and soul of the party but something was different. The usual tension that seemed to fill the room whenever Liam walked into it was no longer present.

The morning after their conversation by the lake, Louis was pleasantly surprised when Liam wandered into the kitchen and took a seat at the breakfast table with the rest of them. He even managed to join in the conversation without seemingly being forced to. After the dishes had been cleared away, he had disappeared to the basement to train alone as usual but breakfast was definitely a step in the right direction.

It was small things like that that were making the change in the house. Nobody was expecting anything massive but even the tiny steps that Liam was taking were progress and were helping everyone to feel better.

Being the most perceptive out of all of them, Niall had picked up on the shift in Liam’s attitude and had also (somehow) guessed that it was something to do with Louis. He had been amazed when Louis had revealed that he knew about Andy and that Liam had confided in him, but rather than questioning how such a situation had even occurred, he merely smiled thoughtfully and patted Louis on the back.

***

Louis was in the garden hovering a few feet above the grass. Every fibre of his being was focused on staying aloft. He was finding the whole flying thing rather frustrating if he was honest. Creating the wind was no problem, but controlling it to such a precise level that it would actually support him was difficult and then factoring in the natural thermal currents made it a real challenge. If he lost concentration for a moment while he was mid-air, he knew that he would fall. Louis wasn’t afraid of a challenge and he certainly wasn’t a quitter, but he also didn’t want to break his neck while attempting to fly.   

He huffed as his feet made contact with the grass once he let his concentration go. Running a hand through his hair, he turned around and started in shock as he saw Liam standing nearby watching him.   

“What are you doing?” Liam asked once Louis had made eye contact.

Louis cleared his throat, feeling a little self-conscious all of a sudden. “Flying,” he replied simply. “Or, at least, trying to.”

Liam frowned slightly. “It looked more like floating from where I was standing,” he remarked.

Louis’ eyebrows lifted. Was Liam taking the piss out of him? Or was it merely an observation? “Yes, well, it’s harder than it looks,” he started and he knew he sounded a little irritable. “I don’t fancy getting any higher up and suddenly losing my focus and plummeting to the ground.”

Liam nodded in understanding and then just continued looking at Louis.

For his part, Louis wasn’t exactly desperate to carry on with an audience. He already felt like he was failing miserably without having someone else there to criticise.

“I could help,” Liam suddenly suggested.

Louis’ face contorted into confusion.

“I could, kind of…spot you, like in the gym when you’re doing weights. If you lost it, or started to fall, I could hold you up until you got going again…like, with my mind,” he tapped the side of his head with his fingers to demonstrate. “At least that way you could practise getting higher without the fear of killing yourself because I’d make sure you didn’t fall.”

Louis was just staring at him in surprise. This was a massive step in their relationship. Not so long ago, he’d been convinced that Liam would have gladly kicked him out and probably punched him in the face on the way, but now Liam was offering to help him, was offering to protect him.

He knew he was going to accept Liam’s offer. He felt like it was the only possible thing he could do.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “But, I don’t want you to hold me up unless I start to fall. I mean, I need to know if I can do it on my own so I don’t want any extra support unless, you know, I look like I’m going to end up with broken bones.”

Liam nodded once and a small smile pulled at his lips. “Understood,” he replied simply. “Is there some sort of signal I should be watching for?”

“Yes, my blood-curdling screams and flailing limbs will be the secret signal for impending doom,” Louis answered sarcastically.

The smile on Liam’s face actually widened at Louis’ words before he nodded and gestured that they should begin.

A brisk wind immediately picked up but it was centred on Louis, only the edge of a breeze was wafting past Liam as he stood watching intently. Louis gave him a long, thoughtful look before he moved his hands downwards and his feet lifted up from the ground steadily. He hovered a few feet above the grass for a minute or so before he looked back at Liam. Liam adopted a stance that showed that he was ready to spring into action if he was needed and nodded encouragingly at Louis.

With a deep breath, Louis pushed himself higher into the air. The wind was still whipping around him, his hair was waving wildly, but he felt secure. He felt like he was in control. With that feeling spurring him on, he pushed higher and higher. Every so often, he glanced back at Liam and saw him completely focused on Louis, his arms out-stretched in readiness.

So far he had only travelled straight up but he wanted to test out his ability to move through the air in any direction. A flick of his hand changed the wind direction and he found himself moving along at a good speed. It was an amazing feeling; so liberating yet almost unreal. He was surprised at how much easier it was knowing that he had back-up just in case he faltered. He changed the wind again and his body followed the movement through the air. Loving the challenge, he pushed himself to go higher still and found himself able to see for miles in all directions. Glancing back down, he could see the now much smaller form of Liam still tracking his every move through the air.

For a moment, he contemplated letting his control slip just to see if Liam really would catch him. It was kind of an exciting idea somehow but then he shook the notion from his head. Deep down he knew that he didn’t need to test Liam like that. He _knew_ that Liam would never let him fall. That knowledge made him feel warm inside and filled him with added confidence.

He swirled around in the air for a few more minutes, unable to stop the exhilaration from flooding through him, before he remarkably gracefully brought himself back down to the ground.

As soon as his feet touched the grass, he ran towards Liam with a huge smile on his face. Liam was smiling too; he had a quietly pleased sort of look on his face. Louis didn’t think before he flung himself at Liam, wrapping his arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

“Thank you! Thank you so much! That was amazing – the most amazing feeling ever. I can’t believe it. Did you see how high I was?” He seemed to have exploded verbally and couldn’t contain his delight at his success. “Thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you Li.”

Louis pulled back then and grinned at Liam dazzlingly, his arms still around his neck. He seemed to suddenly become aware of the position he was in and his smile faltered a little. He’d practically jumped onto Liam, who Louis had rarely, if ever, seen engaging in human contact. For a moment, he thought Liam was going to push him away or wriggle out of his hold but Liam didn’t move. His eyes were wider now but his smile actually looked fond. After a long moment of just looking at one another, Liam patted his back and cleared his throat and Louis took that as his sign to take a step backwards out of Liam’s personal space.

“It was all you,” Liam said. “I didn’t do anything, you didn’t need me.”

“Of course I did,” Louis argued. “There’s no way I would’ve got that high without you. I never would’ve risked it. It was amazing – I can’t wait to do it again!”

“Don’t…” Liam started but then cut himself off. He stared down at the grass as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Be careful, won’t you?” he said when he finally looked back up at Louis. “Just don’t do anything crazy. If you need me to hang around again when you’re practising just let me know…I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Louis’ heart swelled in his chest at the words. Liam was actually concerned about his safety. He tried to use his most sincere expression when he nodded seriously. “I’ll be careful, I promise. And as long as you don’t mind, I’d love you to keep training with you.”

Another smile tugged at Liam’s mouth and Louis could hardly believe he had been responsible for causing Liam to smile so many times in such a short space of time.

“Okay,” Liam nodded, he almost looked a little overwhelmed himself by all the smiling. “Okay, I’m, um, I’m going to head inside…for a bit…I’ll see you later. Well done…on the flying.”

Louis positively beamed at him. “Thank you again…I really mean it.”

With another nod of his head and another quiet, little smile, Liam turned and walked back towards the house, leaving Louis feeling like he was flying even though his feet were firmly planted on the ground.

***

Another week brought another report of a missing mutant. While the news was worrying and depressing, it actually brought the team something useful.

Niall had been scouring the police reports for a connection between the missing people; some clue that might hint at what had happened or link those that had disappeared. When the latest report came in, he found what he hoped was a vital lead. The last three people that had gone missing had all visited the same nightclub in the city just days before they had disappeared. It might have been nothing, it might have been a coincidence but Niall was convinced that it was worth looking in to.

So, at Niall’s suggestion, the five of them arrived at the club dressed for a night out looking like any other group of friends, when they were actually going to try to find out if the club really was a link between the missing mutants.

The nightclub was already busy when they arrived. The music was thumping loudly, the dance floor was crowded and the air seemed thick with heat and the smell of alcohol.

Harry and Louis immediately made for the bar, insisting that they had to blend in with the other customers if they were going to find any useful information, while Liam, Zayn and Niall claimed a booth and sat down.

They all spent quite a while at their table scanning the crowd trying to see if anything seemed out of place. A look of concentration had fallen across Niall’s face as he telepathically reached out across the club.

“There are several mutants here,” he shouted over the music to his friends. “I can’t get a read on anyone with any negative intentions though.”

“I think we’d have been pretty lucky to wander in and find the bad guy just like that,” Zayn called back to him.

Niall shrugged. “We might’ve got lucky.”

“Why don’t we start mingling?” Harry suggested. “We aren’t going to get any answers sitting here all night. If we talk to some people someone might mention something useful.”

They all agreed that it was a good idea but only Harry, Louis and Niall moved from their seats. Liam was staring across the club; he seemed to be intensely focused on the constantly shifting crowd.

“We’ll stay put,” Zayn told them. “Keep an eye on things from here.”

“Anti-social gits,” Harry yelled at them.

Zayn merely raised his middle finger at Harry and continued sipping on his drink.

The three of them seemed to have no problem starting conversations with strangers and had been steadily making their way around the club casually slipping relevant questions into their discussions.

So far Louis hadn’t found out anything related to the case and he decided to stop off at the bar for a drink. As he turned around from the bar, drink in hand, a solid body bumped into him and sent his drink sloshing out of his glass.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” a tall, dark-haired man exclaimed from beside Louis. “Let me get you another one.”

It was an obvious and well-used way to strike up a conversation but Louis found that he didn’t mind all that much. The man beside him was rather attractive; his dark brown hair was styled fashionably, he had lovely green eyes and a charming smile. Louis smiled back at him brightly and accepted his offer. If, in the course of his research, he had to do a bit of flirting with good-looking men and accept drinks from said good-looking men who was he to decline? The conversation flowed easily, with Louis managing to ask the questions he needed to in amongst the other topics.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the nightclub Niall was picking something up telepathically. Unfortunately, it wasn’t related to their case, but rather it was a feeling of irritation and something else that was making his skin prickle. When he looked across the club towards the booth that they had been sitting at earlier he immediately located the source of the feeling. Liam was sitting by himself, Zayn had obviously gone off for a smoke or something, and his eyes were fixed on the bar. When Niall followed his gaze, he saw Louis, with his back to Liam, laughing at something the man next to him had said. He looked back at the table and realised that behind Liam the empty glasses from the evening were floating above their table. They weren’t just floating really, he thought as he looked at them, they were sort of shaking in mid-air.

Niall immediately made his way across the club towards Liam. He made it to the table just as one of the glasses shattered in the air, sending tiny shards of glass raining down over the table. Niall glanced back at Louis and saw the man leaning in close to speak into his ear. _Jealousy?_ Was that what was making his skin feel like it was crawling?

“Li,” he said as he approached Liam and placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

Liam turned his face towards him and his jaw was clenched.

“Do you think you could put the glasses back on the table?” Niall nodded towards the floating objects and Liam complied immediately. “I think it’s time we left,” Niall continued. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything here tonight.”

Liam nodded stiffly and rose from his seat just as Zayn reappeared.

“We’re leaving,” Niall told him immediately.

Zayn’s eyes landed on the table covered in glass and he looked as though he was about to ask what had happened but Niall stopped him with a sharp shake of his head and a telepathic message to ‘leave it’.

While Niall had been preoccupied with Zayn for a few seconds, Liam had slipped away from the table and was stalking over to the bar. When he arrived beside Louis, he cut through the conversation that was taking place and announced, “We’re going.”

Louis looked at him in surprise for a moment. He knew that Liam’s social skills sometimes left a little to be desired but this seemed rude even for him.

“I’m just in the middle of a conversation here,” he said as he gestured towards the man standing opposite him.

“We’re going,” Liam repeated bluntly.

Louis was taken aback by Liam’s attitude. He didn’t understand what was wrong but sensed that he should probably say his goodbyes and leave. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Just give me a minute.”

Liam’s nostrils flared and Louis was sure he saw something like anger flash in his eyes before he turned and marched back towards Niall and Zayn, who had been joined by Harry. He didn’t stop when he reached them though, he just kept stomping past them and out of the door.

Louis turned back to the man he had been chatting with. “Sorry…about that,” he offered weakly.

The man across from him smiled knowingly. “Don’t worry about it,” he said easily, “I’d be jealous if I saw you flirting with someone else too.”

It took Louis a moment to comprehend what he’d just heard. Liam wasn’t jealous – was he? He was so stunned by the prospect that he couldn’t formulate a reply.

“Here,” the man said, still with a smile on his face as he handed Louis a scrap of paper. “Take my number and give me a call sometime if you fancy making some more people jealous.” He winked and strolled away from Louis who was still trying to catch up with what he had just heard. Eventually, he tucked the paper into his pocket and turned to join the others.

They all left the club and headed for the car. Liam was already in the driver’s seat as he hadn’t been drinking but he didn’t look at any of them as they climbed in; he just set off in silence with his jaw still clenched tightly.

***

When they got back to the house, Liam jumped out of the car before the others had managed to undo their seatbelts. He disappeared from the garage immediately and left the four of them wondering what was going on.

Louis had gone up to his room hoping to fall asleep and forget all about the evening’s strange events but sleep wouldn’t come. He was confused, and annoyed if he was honest. Just when he thought he was getting somewhere with Liam he went and acted like a jerk. He couldn’t believe that Liam was motivated by jealousy, surely that wasn’t possible. What did Liam have to be jealous about? Knowing that he wasn’t going to be falling asleep anytime soon, he rolled out of bed and pulled a t-shirt and shorts on. Maybe a workout would clear his head.

As soon as he reached the basement, Louis knew that he wasn’t alone. The doors of the lift slid open and the sound of rhythmic, heavy punches alerted Louis to the fact that Liam was also down there doing a late night workout. His first thought was to abandon his plan, get back in the lift and head back upstairs. But then he decided that that wasn’t fair. If he couldn’t let it go, he didn’t see why Liam got to thrash the punching bag until he got over whatever his problem was.

Instead of getting back in the lift, he marched towards where the punching bag was suspended from the ceiling. He always marvelled at Liam’s physical strength and wondered how long it would be before the bag was either ripped from the ceiling or split by the force of one of Liam’s punches, but right now he didn’t feel like standing watching in appreciation.

“What is your problem?” he asked angrily.

Liam had his back to Louis but stopped punching the bag and turned around as soon as he heard his voice. He looked at Louis for a long time without speaking.

“I said, what’s your problem?” Louis repeated. He was staring Liam down, his anger increasing with every moment that Liam didn’t respond.

“I don’t have a problem,” Liam eventually replied gruffly. He was out of breath and sweaty and for a second Louis pictured him looking just like that, moving above him, slamming into him, grunting out his name. He shook his head forcefully to remove the images; he was _not_ going down that route. He needed to focus on being pissed off.

“Well, it seemed like you did at the club,” he spat out. “I was just talking to that guy and you were so bloody _rude_.”

Liam huffed out a bitter laugh and shook his head slightly. “That guy obviously wanted to fuck you.”

Louis blinked rapidly a few times. He had never heard Liam speak like that before. “So what if he did?” he said once he had recovered.

“We were there to _work_ ,” Liam retorted, “Not flirt and hook up with random guys.”

“I _was_ working,” Louis replied angrily. “I was asking him stuff about the missing people. What does it matter if he was flirting at the same time?”

“It wasn’t just him that was flirting though, was it? You were too,” Liam threw back at him.

“ _So_?” Louis replied. “I don’t see why it’s a big deal. What does it matter to you if I _was_ flirting with him? I don’t know what your fucking problem is.”

Liam didn’t reply; he just stared at Louis angrily. The muscle in his jaw was twitching, his hands were balled into fists by his sides.

“I didn’t know that joining this team meant that I had to give up my social life,” Louis continued. “I didn’t realise that I wouldn’t be allowed to _speak_ to anyone else ever again. I might have thought twice about joining you if I’d known.”

“Maybe you should have,” Liam suddenly spoke up. His eyes were still blazing with anger. “Maybe you shouldn’t have ever come here.”

For a moment, Louis felt the anger leave him and something much worse flood through his system. He felt hollow and sad and almost heartbroken all at the same time. He didn’t want Liam to see that though; he didn’t want him to see that he’d hurt him.

“D’you know what Liam? _Fuck you_ ,” he spat as he turned on his heel and stomped away from him.

It was only when the lift doors had closed behind Louis that Liam growled in frustration. He spun around and slammed his fist into the punching bag as hard as he could. There was a loud screech as the chains holding the bag ripped from the ceiling and it was thrown across the room. He watched as bits of the plaster fell into the centre of the room, then he sank down onto the floor, lying down so that he was looking up at the new hole in the ceiling.

He’d really fucked everything up tonight.

Something strange had been going on in his head for quite a while. Something had changed and was making him _feel_ again. It was terrifying but wonderful at the same time. He felt warm and alive and like there might be something ahead of him other than crushing despair. It had taken a while to figure out that that something was Louis. But that realisation had terrified him. He couldn’t bear the thought of caring so much about anyone else. He couldn’t bear the thought of _losing_ someone else.

He had hoped to just continue as though nothing had changed, but seeing Louis with that other man had filled him with a rage that he couldn’t control. It didn’t make any sense; he didn’t have any claim on Louis, he hadn’t got his head around his feelings himself, let alone told Louis any of his thoughts so he really had no right to be so jealous. Louis thought that he was mad with _him_ , but in truth he was only angry with himself. And now he had messed everything up.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay in posting the next chapter. Unfortunately, I fell down the stairs, both dislocating and breaking my ankle. I've been in hospital, had an operation and am now finally at home recovering and trying to get used to using crutches. Please bear with me on the update front - I will get chapters posted but there may be more of a gap between them. In the meantime, feedback will certainly help to cheer me up immensely!
> 
> BIG thank you to Renzoloft for sending me many lovely messages and having so many comment conversations with me that have improved my days while I've been lying around feeling blue. You know this story is for you love!

Things at the house were tense. It had been a few days since Liam and Louis had had their row and things hadn’t improved.

Liam had retreated back into himself – keeping his distance from the others as much as possible, especially Louis. As far as he was concerned, letting his emotions take control had been what had caused the problem so he was determined to keep his feelings locked up tightly from now on. Deep down he wanted to speak to Louis calmly and apologise to him; he wanted to try to explain what he felt and how it was completely terrifying for him but he couldn’t find the words in his own head so he certainly wasn’t going to be attempting a conversation.

Besides, Louis was probably so pissed off at him that he’d never want to speak to him again anyway. Liam winced as he recalled what he had said to Louis. He had basically told him that things would have been better if he’d never joined the team. That wasn’t true, Liam knew it wasn’t, but he had thrown it at Louis anyway and he knew that he had hurt him.

All this mess was exactly the reason why Liam had tried to keep himself cut off from everyone after Andy died. Caring about people, letting your emotions take over, allowing yourself to _feel_ were all things that weakened you. They were also all things that Louis had made Liam do again.

Louis was all over the place. He swung from miserable to angry to hyperactive like a switch was being flicked in his brain.

The morning after his confrontation with Liam, Louis had been sure that Niall would come and ask him to leave. He wouldn’t have even blamed Niall. How were they supposed to function as a team like this? And if anyone had to go, it would obviously be him. He was the last one in, Liam had built up relationships with the rest of the team over years of working with them, so surely Louis would have to go. They wouldn’t allow him to stay and cause so much ill-feeling. But no-one came. No-one told him to pack his bags.

It was obvious that the others knew that something had erupted between Liam and Louis but they just looked at him sympathetically when he made his way down to breakfast that morning.

Louis had been dreading running into Liam but there was no sign of him. He had made his way down to the gym, knowing that a workout was what he needed to get rid of some pent-up aggression but also fearing he’d bump into Liam. As he walked through the basement, he glanced at the room where they’d had their confrontation the previous night and stumbled to a halt. The punching bag was propped up in the corner, the chains hanging limply down the side. He stepped closer to the room and looked up to see the wrecked plaster surrounding the hole where the chains had once been attached. So Liam had finally unleashed everything and managed to rip the bag from its restraints just as Louis had always wondered if he could. Knowing that his argument with Liam was probably to blame made Louis feel strange. He didn’t want to be the cause of Liam being so angry, he didn’t want to cause trouble.

He thought they’d been getting on so well. He thought they’d been making progress and actually starting to like one another. He knew _he_ liked Liam. And maybe that was part of the problem. Maybe he liked Liam too much and had started to get too close. It had always been obvious that Liam struggled with letting people get close and maybe Louis had pushed too hard. He didn’t know what to think; he was confused and angry and hurt.

Louis’ powers had been ‘playing up’ as he privately described it. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone else, but since the argument they’d been erratic. He knew he was at his best when he could focus his mind and be calm. Niall had spent a long time teaching him ways to be more in control and in tune with his powers. As a result he’d been able to manipulate and create any form of weather instantly and with precise control. But since the problem with Liam, he’d lost some of his ability to stay in control which was incredibly frustrating. The problem was, the more he got cross with himself, the worse the problem became. With his moods fluctuating so wildly as he tried to get his head around what was going on, his powers were doing whatever they liked.

Niall found Louis in one of the training rooms, sitting cross legged on the floor underneath a storm cloud that was pouring water down on him.

Niall took one look at his miserable face and came to sit with him. He sat just far enough away that he wasn’t sitting in the puddle with Louis.

“What’s going on Lou?” he asked gently.

Louis shrugged. “I can’t stop it,” he replied miserably. “Thought I’d better stay in here until it ran out.”

Niall’s eyebrows lifted. “You can’t stop it? How long has this been going on for?”

“About half an hour,” Louis replied as he held his hand out to collect the rain.

“No, I mean how long have you been struggling like this for?” Niall asked.

Louis turned his hand over and watched the water drip away. He didn’t reply.

“It’s been since you fell out with Liam,” Niall said.

As soon as he mentioned Liam’s name, a flash of lightning cracked in the air above them accompanied by a loud clap of thunder. Louis lifted his eyes to look at Niall in defeat.

Niall sighed heavily. “Look Lou, I know that you know what Liam’s been through in the past but what you don’t know is how much better things have been since you’ve been here.

After Andy died, we lost Liam too. He just became like this shell of himself. He carried on because he had to but he wasn’t the same Liam anymore. I know that he must have said something hurtful to you, I could feel it coming off you in waves the morning after, and trust me we’ve all been there. Sometimes when he feels like it’s all getting too much for him, someone’s getting too close, he pushes them away to make it easier. He’s terrified of losing people that he cares for so it’s easier to not let them get too close in the first place. I know that’s pretty fucked up but it seems to be how he protects himself.

I know he’s pushed you away but you have to know that you’ve made things so much better for him. For all of us actually. I knew he’d struggle to accept you at first but after a while I could see that he was warming to you. I could see that he was opening up again and actually becoming more like the Liam we had before. I know he still has his moments, sometimes he shuts down, but they have been happening less and less since he’s been spending time with you. You’re making him feel again Louis and that’s probably scaring the shit out of him.”

Louis was looking at him with wide eyes as he tried to absorb everything that Niall had said.

“I don’t want you to think that I’m making excuses for him and letting him off for being a twat – I’m not. I just want you to understand why he’s like he is. I’m not saying you should just forget what’s happened but maybe try to talk to him. Being like this is obviously making you both miserable.”

Louis nodded slowly and then looked up. The rain had stopped and the cloud was evaporating before his eyes.

Niall stood up and offered his hand to Louis to pull him up too. When they were at eye level, Niall smiled brightly and clapped his hand on Louis’ shoulder. “You’re good for each other,” he said knowingly. “Stay here, I’ll grab you a towel.”

***

“What happened to the bag?” Louis asked.

Liam spun around so quickly that he nearly dropped the drill that was in his hand. He was repairing the mess he’d made when he’d sent the punching bag flying across the room and wasn’t expecting Louis to walk up behind him.

“I…um…I hit it too hard,” he said eventually.

Louis nodded and hummed in understanding. “Oh well, it’s good to get things fixed up sooner rather than later,” he said.

Liam looked strangely uncomfortable and Louis thought that maybe now was the wrong time to try to smooth things over between them. The last time they’d been in this room, they’d yelled at one another and Liam had been so angry he’d managed to put a hole in the ceiling. Now he was standing there with a drill in his hand and Louis wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Liam would do if he got mad. He turned to walk away.

“Louis, wait,” Liam called.

He turned around slowly, feeling nervous but also desperate to clear the air between them.

“I…” Liam started but seemed to lose what he wanted to say. He cleared his throat. “I want to apologise for the other night. I was a dick and behaved terribly. I had no right to treat you like that.”    

Louis was a little shocked. He hadn’t been expecting a full apology. “Why did you then?” he asked.

Liam’s eyes widened and he looked down to fiddle with the drill that was still in his hand.

“I know that you think it’s better to keep everyone at arm’s length,” Louis said gently. “But I think it might be good for you to let someone in.”

Liam looked up at him quickly and their eyes met.

“You don’t have to explain everything to me, I just…I don’t want us to be angry with each other anymore,” Louis continued. “And maybe, one day, you’ll feel like you can…let _me_ in.”

Liam swallowed thickly but held the eye contact with Louis. “Maybe,” he said, “One day.”

Both of them smiled slightly at the other. Things weren’t perfect and there were still wounds that needed to be healed for both of them but at least they had taken a step in the right direction again.

***

Thursday evening found the team called to a horrendous accident on the motorway. Several vehicles had been involved and many people were injured. Niall had stayed at the house to help co-ordinate their rescue efforts while Liam, Harry, Louis and Zayn had all attended the scene.

After a few hours of pulling victims from their vehicles, helping to extinguish fires and moving crumpled cars out of the way, the team were ready to head for home. They had worked tirelessly since arriving but felt satisfied with their efforts; they had saved a lot of lives and got people to safety a lot more quickly than the emergency services could have managed on their own.

At some point during the chaos, Niall had gone quiet on the end of their communications but none of them had had the time to wonder why. Now that they were ready to return to the base, Liam attempted to alert Niall.

“Niall, we’re heading back,” he said as he held his hand against his ear-piece.

There was nothing but silence in response.

“Niall? You there?” he tried again.

Again there was no response.

Liam dropped his hand and looked at the others in confusion. “Comms must have gone down,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll head home and see what’s going on.”

They all agreed and headed back to the car.

As soon as they arrived at the house, something seemed wrong. Everywhere was too quiet. Usually Niall was there to greet them if they went out on a mission without him. Even if the communication systems had gone down and he was working to repair them, there should have been some noise, some sign of life, but there was nothing.

The four of them were immediately on their guard. They cautiously but quickly made their way through the basement towards the bank of computers that Niall stationed himself at for missions and instantly realised that something bad had happened. Niall’s chair was over-turned, his headset was lying on the floor (it looked like it had been stood on) and one of the computer screens from the edge of the desk was smashed on the ground.

“Niall?” Harry called out in panic. “Niall, are you here?”

“We need to split up,” Liam commanded. “We need to search the house to try to find him, but if someone was here they might still be around so Zayn and Louis you go together, Harry, you’re with me. Watch your backs.”

They split into pairs and set off quickly: Zayn and Louis took the upstairs, while Harry and Liam searched the ground floor and the basement.

When they had scoured the house and met up again in the kitchen, they all wore matching expressions of fear and concern.

“He’s gone,” Zayn said, the worry clear in his voice.

“Someone’s taken him,” Liam added as he confirmed what they all feared.

***

Niall wondered how much he had had to drink the night before. It must have been a hell of a lot for him to be waking up feeling quite so rough. To be honest he couldn’t even remember being out drinking at all so he must have been totally smashed. He hadn’t even managed to force his eyes open yet, knowing that the pounding in his head would only intensify as soon as he tried.

He wondered why his bed felt so hard and cold and he was immediately worried that maybe he had fallen asleep somewhere that wasn’t his own room. Maybe he was lying on the stone floor in the basement or on the tiles in the kitchen but surely the others would have dragged him up to his bed. He needed to find out, so cautiously he forced his eyelids to move.

He was not in the basement or the kitchen, he wasn’t in his room, in fact he wasn’t even in his own _house_. He didn’t know where he was. But that was only part of what was so frightening. The other part was the set of metal bars that were right in front of his face.

Niall pushed himself up into a sitting position immediately and stared at the bars in horror. Quickly, he looked all around himself and found that there were bars surrounding him on three sides and a stone wall behind him. The space was just large enough for him to lie down and would be tall enough for him to stand up but that was it. He was in a cage.

He moved forward and grabbed hold of the bars with both fists. He tried to shake them but knew it was pointless – they were solid and unyielding. Peering out of his prison, he could see other cells just like his all around the edge of a large room. It might have been some sort of warehouse. As he continued to look, he could make out shapes inside some of the cells. Other people were trapped just like him; some were lying down, their wrists bound in front of them, others were curled in on themselves in the far corner of their cell. Niall was about to call out to them to try to find out what the hell was going on, when a loud screeching sound signalled a rusted door was being opened at the opposite end of the room.

A tall man with dark hair flecked with grey walked casually into the room, scanning the cages as he went. His eyes landed on Niall, who was still gripping the bars of his cell, and his face lit up.

“You’re awake!” he announced happily. “I’m so glad that we finally get to have a proper introduction.”

Niall watched him approach warily. “What is going on?” he asked as the man squatted down in front of him. “Where am I?”

The man scrunched up his face slightly. “Those are the wrong questions I’m afraid,” he said with a shake of his head. “You should have asked: ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Why am I here?’.” He put on a silly, mocking voice as he asked the questions. “My name is Will and you are here because I chose you.”

“Chose me for what?” Niall asked. He already disliked the man before him; just being in his presence made his skin crawl.

“Ah, an excellent question this time,” Will said as he stood up straight and started pacing in front of Niall. “I chose you because you’re just what I was looking for. I’ve been searching for someone like you for _ever_ and when I found you, I just knew that I had to have you.”

Niall had stood up too within the confines of his cell and was tracking Will’s movements nervously. The man before him was clearly unstable. “But what for?” he asked again.

Suddenly, Will closed the gap between them and was right in front of Niall. He reached his hand up and ran his index finger across the knuckles of Niall’s right hand where it was still clamped around the bars of his cage.

Niall immediately felt dizzy and dropped to his knees. He felt like all the strength had been drawn from him and he couldn’t support his weight any more. As he gasped on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath and clear the black spots that were swimming across his vision, he came to a terrifying realisation. This man was responsible for the missing mutants, he was responsible for the murders; he was kidnapping people and stealing their powers.

When Niall managed to push himself back into a sitting position, he glared at Will. “You’re a power absorber,” he said.

Will smiled and tilted his head to the side condescendingly. “Actions speak louder than words I suppose.”

“You’ve been kidnapping mutants and taking their powers for months. You’ve been killing people…” Niall couldn’t comprehend why someone would do something so despicable. “ _Why?_ ”

Will’s smile fell and his expression darkened as he stared at Niall. “Now _that_ is the key question. Can you imagine how it feels to have this ‘ _gift’_?” he spat the word like it was poison. “Can you imagine how it feels to know that if you ever touch another person you will suck the life right out of them? Can you imagine how it feels to be shunned by your own family for something that you can’t control?” Will’s voice was rising, his anger obvious as he began pacing again.

“But you don’t have to do _this_ ,” Niall said desperately. “You don’t have to use it to hurt other people. Someone out there could help you…”

“No!” Will snapped as he spun around to face Niall. “I have spent so long on my own wondering why I’m like this. I was always afraid to be near anyone else because I might hurt them but do you know what? That’s not fair. Why should _I_ be punished? Why should _I_ be alone? I realised that I didn’t need to be - I could have lots of people near me.” He waved his arms around the room before he focused intently on Niall again. “And do you know what else I realised? I could be the most powerful mutant in the world if I actually used my powers. If I absorbed the powers of other mutants, I could use them. I can be all powerful because I can possess every single mutation all at the same time.”

His words made Niall feel ill all over again. Will obviously didn’t care about anyone else, all he wanted was power. And on top of that, Niall had realised that he wasn’t just there as a prisoner, he was there as a power source.

“So you see, I’ve been looking for you for a long time,” Will said almost sweetly. The bitterness was suddenly gone from his tone again. “You are very powerful. The telepathy is wonderful but what I really want is your psychic navigation. For so long I’ve had to get close to people to figure out their abilities – I can sense what a person can do but only by being in close proximity. For example, like how I found _you_ at the nightclub the other night. I was using one of my ‘friend’s’ powers to mask my thoughts so I’m not surprised that you didn’t know I was right beside you at one point. I knew straight away that you were just what I wanted. But now, with your help, I can search for mutants from miles away, which makes things so much easier.”

“I’ll never help you,” Niall retorted. “You’re sick, what you’re doing is sick.”

“Well you won’t exactly have much choice in the matter,” Will said simply.

“How do you expect to keep me locked in here? I can control your mind in case you’d forgotten,” Niall told him defiantly.

Will actually laughed at that. “Oh, do try,” he said brightly. “But I gave you a little jab while you were unconscious which will prevent you from using your powers. You see, they’re not your powers anymore – they’re mine.”

Niall desperately tried to reach out with his mind but nothing came to him. He felt completely hollow. “No!” he shouted. “You fucking bastard!” He was banging against the bars in a rage as the terrible reality of his situation began to sink in. He was trapped at the mercy of a sociopath who was going to steal his powers in order to trap other innocent victims.

Will was tutting and shaking his head sadly. “Save your energy,” he said. “I don’t want you getting too tired out straight away.”

“Why? Because I’m no use to you then?” Niall asked angrily.

“Precisely,” Will answered like it was obvious. “Unfortunately some of my other guests seemed to… run out of power. I don’t really know what happened; I always give them chance to recharge their batteries but I guess some of them just can’t keep up.” He spoke so breezily that it was like he really believed that it was just a disappointment that his ‘guests’ had died and he really didn’t realise that people could only survive for so long having the life literally drained from them. He spoke about them almost as though they were objects, powered up and ready for use whenever he wanted. It was obvious that he had no qualms about ‘throwing them away’ when they had stopped being useful.

“How many?” Niall asked dejectedly. He already knew about two mutants that had been found in an emaciated state and now he fully understood how they had got in that condition. But he needed to know how many poor people had suffered the same fate at the hands of this delusional creep.

Will shrugged his shoulders and frowned. “Hmm, four if I remember rightly,” he said easily.

Niall hung his head and tried to calm himself down. He needed to keep his head if he was ever going to get out of this alive. Suddenly he felt the same dizziness and weakness sweep through his body and he slumped to his knees again.

Will was stroking his hand up and down Niall’s forearm and smiling giddily to himself as he watched Niall struggle to keep his eyes open. As Niall finally gave in to the fight and slipped into unconsciousness, he heard Will happily announcing, “We’re going to get on really well.”

***  

It had been three days since Niall had gone missing. Three days where the rest of the team had searched and searched and found nothing. There had been no clues as to what had happened to him other than the signs of a struggle at his communication station. The security cameras covering the perimeter of the house had been disabled, allowing whoever had attacked Niall to waltz in completely undetected.

None of them had slept much in the last three days. They returned to the house to eat in order to keep their energy up and catch a few hours sleep before they went back out to search. They had reported Niall’s disappearance to the police but didn’t hold out much hope of that actually helping. Niall’s name was just going to be added to a long list of missing mutants.

Using Niall’s research into the disappearances and murders, they had created a search area to start off with. Once they had factored in the positions that the bodies had been found, the last places that the mutants had been seen and the location of the nightclub that Niall was so sure was relevant, they had got an area covering a few square miles to investigate. It was slow progress as the area was full of abandoned buildings, storage units and garages but they searched each one meticulously.

By the end of the third day of searching, with no sign of Niall, the strain was beginning to show on all of them. They were all exhausted but refused to give up. Louis could see that Liam was pulling away from them again; he was slipping back into his shut down state, almost as though he was preparing for the worst.

As they walked down yet another alleyway, searching for clues, Harry suddenly stopped at the front of the group. “Can you hear that?” he asked as he spun around to face the rest of them.

“Hear what?” Zayn asked. He stepped closer to Harry, knowing that his hearing was much more acute. He couldn’t hear anything.

“I can hear a voice,” Harry said as he turned slowly on the spot looking all around him as he tried to locate the sound.

“It’s probably because you’re so tired,” Zayn said gently as he patted his shoulder. “We’re all knackered – your mind’s playing tricks on you.”

Harry looked at Zayn sadly and nodded once. Zayn wrapped his arm around him and guided him away from the spot.

Louis cast a glance at Liam but Liam was staring resolutely ahead. He moved off to follow the others leaving Louis trailing behind.

As they continued along the alleyway, Louis heard the voice. He came to an abrupt halt just as Harry had done.

“Help us…” The voice was so weak that Louis strained to hear it but then he realised that he wasn’t hearing it with his ears at all, he was hearing it inside his head.

“Wait!” he called out to the others. “I can hear it too!”

The three men ahead of him turned around at his shout and looked at him questioningly before running back to him. They all stood there listening but after a moment Zayn and Liam started looking at him sceptically.

“I still can’t hear anything,” Zayn said doubtfully.

“You’re not listening properly,” Louis insisted.

“I have the best hearing out of all of us,” Zayn told him. “If there was something there, I’d hear it.” He moved to start walking away.

“No,” Louis protested. “Just keep listening in your head.”

“We haven’t got time for this Louis,” Liam said sternly and he too turned to continue along the alleyway.

But Louis wouldn’t accept that. He spun Liam back around to face him and quickly placed his hands over Liam’s ears blocking out the sounds of the city.

After a moment, Liam’s eyes widened. “I can hear it,” he said in shock. Louis nodded enthusiastically at him. “It’s Niall!” he gasped out.

Harry and Zayn were standing with their hands over their own ears next to them now. Anyone looking into the alley would have wondered what on Earth was going on but the four men were so focused that they didn’t care what they looked like.

“Warehouse? Is that what he said?” Harry asked eventually.

“Yeah, I think so,” Zayn agreed.

Louis lowered his hands from Liam’s ears and took a step backwards. He felt a little awkward all of a sudden and he focused his attention on what Harry and Zayn were saying.

“He sounds exhausted, like it’s taking all his energy to project those few words,” Harry said sombrely.

“Well, at least he’s able to tell us that much,” Liam said. “And now we know where to start looking.”

***

Niall’s eyes fluttered open slowly. Even that simple action seemed to take so much effort. Will had returned every day and drawn power from Niall, leaving him exhausted.

In the brief moments when he woke up, he tried to use his powers to send a distress signal to anyone that might be listening. He had realised that the medication that Will was injecting him with would begin to wear off between doses and he was using that tiny window of time to project a few words over and over again – that was all he could manage. Then before long, Will would return and either inject him again or touch his skin and steal more of his powers. He was hardly leaving Niall enough time to regain any of his strength between his attacks and Niall knew that he wouldn’t last long if he carried on at this rate. Unfortunately, Will was obviously so pleased with his new ‘toy’ that he wasn’t taking that into consideration. Niall just hoped that someone would hear him before it was too late.

***

It was a weary but more hopeful group that returned to the house that night. Hearing Niall’s voice had reassured them that he was still out there and that he still needed them to keep searching. They were planning to have some food to boost their energy, sleep for a few hours and then head straight back out at first light to begin searching warehouses within the area that they had marked. If Niall wasn’t in any of them, they would extend the search area.

Louis found himself in the basement after he had eaten. He wasn’t entirely sure why. He had wandered past Niall’s computers and cast them a sad look before making his way into one of the training rooms. He sat down in the middle of the room and closed his eyes for a few moments. The floor was covered in a spongy mat, perfect for when they were working on close-combat activities and Louis wondered whether he should just lie there and try to get some sleep but his thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing their throat in the doorway. He looked up and saw Liam standing there.

“You did really well today,” Liam said as he walked across the room towards Louis.

Louis shook his head slightly, “Harry heard it first. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for him pointing it out.”

“Maybe, but you were the one that made us stop and listen. If you hadn’t been so insistent, we would have walked away.”

“You mean I was bossy,” Louis smiled.

“Obviously bossy worked out alright,” Liam smiled back.

Liam sat down beside Louis and they fell into silence.

“We’ll find him you know,” Louis said eventually. “We’re going to bring him home.”

Liam nodded but didn’t speak.

“Li, talk to me,” Louis said as he turned to look at him. “What are you thinking?”

Liam returned Louis’ gaze and swallowed thickly. “I…I’m scared,” he admitted. “I’m scared that I won’t be able to save him. I’m scared that I’ll lose him too. He’s one of my best friends…I don’t think I can handle it if…” he trailed off and looked down at where Louis’ hand was now covering his on the mat.

“You aren’t doing this alone Liam,” Louis told him forcefully. “We are all going to save him. We’re a team. It’s alright to be scared of losing him because that means that you care. But you aren’t going to lose him…none of us are, because we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen. Whatever it takes, we’ll find him.”    

Liam nodded and again they fell into silence.

“I’m glad you’re here Lou,” Liam said after a long time of neither of them speaking.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” Louis replied as he squeezed Liam’s hand. He smiled as Liam turned his hand around under Louis’ so that they could tangle their fingers together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think I'm planning for there to be two more chapters after this one. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter - feedback is just lovely. :)


	6. Chapter 5

After several empty warehouses with no sign of Niall, it would have been easy to start doubting that they were on the right track, but the four of them were determined to find him.

As they approached the next warehouse, they noticed something that seemed different to all of the others that they had investigated. There were fresh tyre tracks leading down the side of this one, which on closer inspection led to a black car. If the warehouses were indeed abandoned, who would be parking their car outside one of them?

Adrenaline coursed through all of them – this was potentially it. They might find Niall inside, but they also had to be prepared for a fight. They didn’t know what had happened to him or who had taken him, but if someone was willing to kidnap Niall, then they probably weren’t going to be too happy to see him being rescued.

Liam took the lead, forcing the rusty door open, and they all stepped into the large space inside the warehouse.

At first inspection it seemed deathly quiet inside; there seemed to be no sign of life. But regardless of that fact, they immediately knew that they had found what they were looking for. This was no empty unit with only mice and spiders occupying it. All around the edge of the space there were what looked like very small prison cells and, when they looked closer, they realised that there were people inside many of them. But the people trapped inside weren’t moving; they hadn’t started begging for help as soon as the team had entered. They were all frighteningly still.

Liam, Harry, Louis and Zayn all rushed forwards, searching for Niall, quietly calling his name as they went. They were all horrified by the state of the captives inside the cages. Some were in a worse condition than others, practically wasted away to nothing. Many of them were lying on the floor of their cells, seemingly unconscious. Some were curled in on themselves, as far away from the bars of their cell as they could get. But all of them seemed to be unresponsive to the group of men that was quickly moving around the room.

Furiously, Liam had been ripping the doors from the cells as he went in order to release all of the mutants as soon as possible. He was disgusted by what they had found and the thought that Niall might be in this condition filled him with rage and horror.

Stumbling to a halt, he fell to his knees when he saw an untidy looking mop of recognisable blonde hair.

“Niall?” he called out softly. When he received no response from his friend, he grabbed the bars of the cell and ripped the door away from its hinges. He scrambled closer to Niall and scooped him up to hold him against his chest.

The noise and the movement seemed to stir Niall, who blinked at him dazedly. Liam reached out to stroke his face in reassurance but Niall flinched away from the touch.

The others had all come running as soon as they realised that Liam had located Niall and were standing closely watching in concern.

“Li?” Niall asked after he had finally managed to focus on his friend. “Are you really here?”

Liam let out a wet sounding little laugh as he squeezed his friend, “Of course I’m here. We all are. You didn’t think we’d forget about you, did you? We’ve come to take you home.”

“Normally, I like to choose who my guests are,” a voice behind them said coldly, “But I’m sure I’ve got space for all of you now you’re here.”

Harry, Louis and Zayn had whipped around at the sound and Liam had turned his head to face the man standing at the other end of the warehouse.

“Who are you and what have you done to all of these people?” Zayn asked angrily. They had all adopted a defensive stance, blocking Niall from the man opposite them.

Liam looked back at Niall who was struggling weakly in his arms. “Li,” he gasped, “He’s…he’s a power…absorber…he’ll…take them.”

Everything fell into place in Liam’s head: the missing mutants, the emaciated bodies, the prisoners in the cages. This was all some sick arrangement where this disgusting man before them stole the powers of other mutants. And that must have made the group of mutants trapped in the warehouse his collection. The thought made Liam shudder involuntarily.

“It’ll be okay Ni,” Liam said gently. “We’ll stop him. We’re going to take you home and help all of these people.” He laid Niall back on the floor carefully and stood up to join his team mates.

Across the room, Will was being joined by three other mutants walking towards him at a steady, controlled pace. As they stood beside him, they wore blank expressions as they turned to stare across at the group of men opposite them.

“Your friend has a remarkable gift,” Will told them cheerfully. “His ability to control the minds of other people is quite thrilling.” He looked at the three mutants beside him and then back at the team. With a nod of his head, his three puppets began advancing on them, each of them with a determined look on their face.

“They’re not in control of their own minds,” Harry said. “We can’t hurt them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

“Well that puts us at a serious disadvantage then,” Louis huffed out, “Seeing as they look pretty keen on hurting us.”

The three mutants that were being controlled were in various states of health. They looked to be reasonably healthy in comparison to some of the others that they had seen locked in the cages but they certainly weren’t at their full strength. Regardless of that, they seemed determined to attack and the order to harm the team was obviously all they cared about.

The female mutant suddenly launched herself at Zayn and he immediately leapt out of her way. She landed gracefully and spun around to give chase; Zayn was pretty sure she had some sort of feline mutation too from her actions.

One of the men started hurling missiles at the others, but none of them could see where he was producing them from. He seemed to be creating them out of thin air but then Harry realised that he was pulling tiny metal balls out of his pocket, charging them up in his hand and launching them at high speed. They were as effective as bullets as they ripped through the air. 

The final mutant was moving incredibly quickly; he wasn’t teleporting but zipping around the space so quickly that it was almost impossible to keep track of him. His speed seemed to be part of his whole body because when he threw a punch, his fist seemed to move almost invisibly before it connected.  

Harry was trying to keep them busy by disappearing just as they moved for him and then reappearing elsewhere, while Louis was busy creating any form of weather that he could think of that wouldn’t actually do them any real harm. There was a thick snow storm raging in one corner of the warehouse, surrounding the man moving at high speed. He struggled to get his footing on the now slippery, snow covered floor and Louis hoped it would slow him down for a while.

Meanwhile, Zayn had finally shaken off the female mutant and she had switched her attention to Liam. She had managed to grab hold of Liam at one point and he had four long, deep scratches across his chest, that were bleeding freely, to show for it. She was definitely feline but she had razor sharp claws (something that Zayn didn’t possess) and she was happy to sink them into the flesh of anyone she came into contact with. After trying not to do her too much damage, Liam had managed to catch her off balance for a split-second and was now forcing her backwards into one of the cells with his mind. She was struggling against the invisible force pushing her to no avail. Once Liam had her inside the cell, he used his telekinesis to manoeuvre the door shut and lock it firmly. She was snarling at the bars and slamming her weight against the door like she was possessed but at least she was contained.

The fast-moving man had finally managed to escape the snow storm and was moving impossibly quickly around the room again. He headed straight for Louis, who knew that he had no chance of moving out of his way unless he went upwards so without over-thinking, he instantly created a powerful wind that lifted him up into the air and away from his attacker. The man stopped below him and stared up at him angrily. Suddenly, he was surrounded by a thick fog as Louis focused everything on maintaining the wind that was holding him up and creating the fog at the same time. Under the cover of Louis’ disorientating fog, Harry teleported right behind the man and managed to knock him out with a blow to the back of his head. It wasn’t ideal, they didn’t really want to hurt these people but they had to disable this man while he was momentarily still. As Louis began to sink back towards the ground, Harry started dragging the unconscious man back towards one of the cells and out of harm’s way.

There was a horrible pained cry and all eyes flicked to Zayn as he stumbled backwards clutching his side. The man throwing the projectiles had managed to clip him and blood was pouring through his fingers as he staggered away from his attacker.

Liam reacted instantly. With a flick of his hand, the man was flying backwards through the air, until he landed in a heap on the opposite side of the warehouse. He rushed to Zayn’s side and took in his friend’s condition. Zayn’s eyes were wide, his face paling as he clutched his side in agony.

“Harry!” Liam called urgently.

Instantly, Harry was beside them awaiting instructions.

“You need to get Zayn and Niall out of here. Get them to the hospital. Me and Louis will finish this,” Liam commanded.

Harry looked torn as he heard Liam’s words. “I can come back,” he suggested quickly.

“No,” Liam shook his head. “Look after them, we’ll join you after we’ve dealt with this scumbag. Let the police know where we are and send ambulances for these people. Just make sure Zayn and Niall are okay.”

Nodding once, Harry placed his hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Be careful,” he said with a serious look on his face, before he disappeared from view, taking Zayn along with him.

Moments later, they appeared next to Niall, and after briefly whispering in Niall’s ear and with one last look at Liam, Harry disappeared with both of his injured friends.

Everything seemed very quiet all of a sudden. Too quiet.

Liam’s thoughts immediately went to Louis. The last time that Liam had seen him, he had been hovering in the air creating a thick fog on the other side of the warehouse. Even with everything that was going on around them, Liam had managed to be impressed by Louis’ skill; not so long ago he’d struggled to stay a few feet above the ground and now he was flying with seemingly minimum effort and creating other weather forms at the same time.

Liam turned around quickly and drew in a shocked gasp at the sight before him.

The fog was fading away gradually to reveal the psychotic bastard that had started all of this smirking at Liam. Gripped tightly against his chest, was Louis. Louis wore the same blank expression that the other three mutants had and Liam knew immediately that his mind was being controlled.

“Let him go,” Liam ordered.

Will scoffed at his suggestion and then completely ignored it. “Do you know how long it took me to find Niall?” he asked. “A _very_ long time,” he answered his own question. “I needed him to help me choose people. His gift meant that I could find people from far away. And now, you’ve taken him from me. I liked him.” He looked thoughtful and sort of sad for a long moment.

“Niall wasn’t yours to keep,” Liam said. He was trying to stay calm to prevent Will from doing anything drastic. “None of these people are. You can’t just take their powers - that’s not fair.”

“ _Fair_?” Will yelled. “ _Fair_? What’s not _fair_ is that I can never touch another living person without sucking the life out of them. You don’t know what that feels like – to be always alone. If I want to take their powers – I will.”

In an attempt to calm him down again, Liam held up his hands. He was desperately trying to think of a way to stop Will but with Louis effectively acting as a human shield, he didn’t know what he could do.

It looked like Louis was regaining some control over his own mind. He was blinking rapidly and he looked confused about where he was. Still he was held tightly against Will’s chest and there was no way that he’d be able to wriggle free. Maybe keeping Will talking was distracting him from controlling Louis. 

“I could drain him in seconds, you know,” Will said suddenly as he gestured at Louis. His voice was quieter now, disturbingly so.

Liam’s eyes widened and he shook his head slightly. He couldn’t keep up with how this mad man’s mind worked and he was scared that anything he said might push him over the edge.

Will breathed in deeply, like he was inhaling something in the air. “He’s really quite perfect,” he said softly. “So full of energy and life. Imagine being able to control the weather like that. Imagine creating storms and floods and droughts with a flick of your hand. Imagine the power you could have over so many people.” His hand lifted and Liam watched in horror as he stroked the side of Louis’ face. It was the briefest of touches, but Louis’ eyes widened in shock before they rolled back in his head. His knees gave out and it was only Will’s arm around him that stopped him collapsing onto the floor.

“ _No_!” Liam yelled and he took a step forwards before Will held up his hand to stop him.

“Move again and I’ll take it all,” he said darkly before he was suddenly smiling brightly; he looked giddy with excitement. “That was a rush,” he gloated. “What an amazing feeling.” He raised his hand and created a dark cloud above Liam and then it started raining, soaking him completely in seconds but Liam just kept staring at the scene before him, desperate for a solution.

Will suddenly closed his hand and the rain stopped immediately. He tilted his head slightly to the side as he looked at Liam in consideration. Then he let out a little laugh. “You can’t stand it, can you? You don’t like me touching him. I can hear your thoughts thanks to Niall’s wonderful powers.”

Liam clenched his jaw and his fists, but he didn’t speak.

“You’ve missed your chance, haven’t you? So afraid to let him get close to you and now you’re going to lose him anyway,” Will smirked at him. “I’m going to enjoy taking everything from him. Imagine the fun I’ll have with his powers. I think I might keep him hanging on to life for as long as possible, just so that I can enjoy this feeling over and over again. It’s a shame though because I don’t think he’ll last that long…he’s too full of energy bubbling away at the surface. He’ll soon be exhausted and then I’ll take what little strength he has left. I wonder if he’ll even have the strength to call out for your help,” Will taunted.

He lifted his hand again but Liam called out to stop him.

“Don’t. Don’t do this,” he begged.

“Why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I have this power?” Will asked with a smirk.

“Because…because you can have me instead,” Liam said. He knew what he had to do. He couldn’t bear to watch as Louis was stolen from him. He couldn’t stand the thought of Louis being drained of his wonderful, bright spark of life and energy. Maybe it was selfish but he couldn’t stand to watch someone else that he cared for so deeply being taken from him. If that meant that he sacrificed himself in order to stop that happening, he was happy to do it.  

Louis was gradually creeping back to full awareness. Everything seemed horribly fuzzy but he was aware of people talking nearby. He could hardly move and he realised that he was being held tightly against someone’s chest. He could feel the vibrations as the man spoke and feel his heartbeat thudding against his back. After a moment, he recognised one of the voices: Liam. It took him a few seconds to focus on his voice but then he felt a cold rush of dread pass through his entire body as he realised what Liam was saying.

“I’m stronger than him. If you let him go and take me instead…I can withstand more than him…my energy can keep you going for longer.”

Will was actually considering Liam’s offer. He was watching Liam closely, studying his face. “You would do that? You would give yourself up for him? How sweet. It’s such a shame that he’ll never know.”

While Will had been talking, Louis had made a decision; he wasn’t going to let Liam sacrifice himself. He didn’t know what Will’s next move was going to be: was he going to let him go and attack Liam instead? Or was he going to continue draining the life out of him and use his powers against Liam? Either way, Louis wasn’t going to let him make the choice, just like he wasn’t going to let Liam get hurt.

There was no way that he could turn around in his current position which didn’t leave him with many options. Obviously Will didn’t see him as a threat at that moment; he probably thought that Louis was still drained from his touch, so now was the time to act. He rubbed the fingers of his right hand across his thumb and tiny forks of lightning ignited across his palm. He could only manage a limited energy supply as he still felt the effects of Will’s power dragging him down but hopefully it would be enough. Slowly, he lifted his hand.

Liam saw what Louis was doing and looked at him quizzically. It took a moment for him to understand what Louis was intending to do; he wondered if Louis was still being controlled somehow. But then his eyes widened as he realised that Louis looked fiercely determined and he just knew what he was planning. Their eyes locked for a moment and Liam shook his head slightly but it was too late.

“If you want my powers so much – you can have them,” Louis suddenly announced as his hand made contact with Will’s face. Louis let out a pained groan as soon as their skin touched but he refused to pull away – he had to finish this. His power wasn’t at full strength, he couldn’t produce enough energy to kill his attacker outright, but if he could hold on for long enough he’d be able to eventually stop Will.

“ _No_!” Liam screamed as he ran forwards.

The lightning from Louis’ hand was coursing through Will and he began to convulse violently. He loosened his hold on Louis but as Louis managed to turn around, Will’s hand shot out, gripped his wrist tightly and pulled him closer. His eyes were practically popping out of his head as he grimaced in pain but he refused to let go of Louis. Even as Will was dying, he was going to make other people suffer. Louis’ skin was now in contact with Will’s in two places and he felt himself weakening before he fell to his knees, dragging Will with him.

Liam watched in horror as they fell. Louis’ skin was horribly pale and his veins were bulging where his flesh seemed to be sinking into itself.

There was a sudden loud crackle and Will cried out one more time before his writhing body fell still. Louis limply collapsed beside him. They were still connected by their hands.

Immediately, Liam fell to his knees beside them. In disgust and rage, he sent Will’s body flying away with his mind before he rolled Louis onto his back.

“Louis? _Louis_?” he was shaking him in panic. “Oh God, please wake up, please,” he begged desperately.

There was no reaction as Louis remained frighteningly still and silent.

“ _Fuck_!” Liam screamed out in anguish. He didn’t know when it had started but tears were streaming down his face. “Louis, _please_ …”

Still there was silence so Liam pulled Louis close to his chest, just as he had done with Niall when they had found him. He was rocking backwards and forwards, his mind filled with how he had failed again and lost another person he loved. As soon as he thought of that, his tears flowed with renewed strength; he loved Louis and he had never even realised until it was too late. He pressed his cheek against Louis’ own and squeezed his eyes shut.

A strange tickling sensation against the skin of his cheek made him lift his head slightly. He looked down, gasping in disbelief at the sight of Louis’ eyelids fluttering as though he was trying to open his eyes. He hardly dared hope that Louis was still alive.

“Louis?” he whispered softly as he reached his hand up to stroke Louis’ cheek gently.

Louis moved his face ever so slightly into the touch but his eyes didn’t open.

“It’s alright Lou,” Liam told him quietly. “I’m going to look after you.”

With that, he scooped him up into his arms and lifted him from the floor. Louis didn’t react to being moved, except to lean closely against Liam’s chest. Liam just squeezed him tightly before walking out of the warehouse.

***   

When Liam walked into the waiting room at the hospital, Harry nearly knocked him over with the force of his desperate hug. He clung to Liam like he was the only thing that he had left in the world and Liam was immediately scared that something awful had happened while he had been at the warehouse. When he finally managed to remove Harry, he asked him to explain what had happened since arriving at the hospital.

Apparently, Zayn’s injury was practically the same as a gunshot wound. The doctors were sure that none of his major organs had been damaged and, despite the substantial blood loss, they were confident that he would make a full recovery.

Niall’s condition had caused great concern amongst the staff but they were quick to stabilise him; hooking him up to various machines and drips to begin replenishing lost fluids and nutrients. They had informed Harry that Niall was very weak and that he would be laid up in bed for a while as he recovered from the strain put on his body by having the life literally sucked out of him. He was in a vulnerable condition, susceptible to illness and infection, but with the correct care and medicines he would be back on his feet and fighting fit eventually.

As soon as he had finished explaining what he knew to Liam, Harry asked after Louis. He had seen the redness of Liam’s eyes and obviously noticed the absence of Louis at their reunion.

Liam hung his head and drew in a few deep breaths before he could find the words to explain what had happened at the warehouse.   
As he spoke, Harry took his hand and squeezed tightly; just letting him know that he was with him.

When Liam had walked out of the warehouse with Louis in his arms, the police and paramedics were just arriving. Louis had immediately been loaded into an ambulance, Liam riding along too as he refused to leave him, and rushed to the hospital. Phrases like ‘thready pulse’ and ‘organ failure’ scared Liam beyond words but he refused to give up hope that Louis would keep fighting. As soon as they reached the hospital, Louis was whisked away and Liam was left alone. He had asked at the desk and been directed to where Harry was waiting and had felt such relief at seeing at least one of his friends in one piece.

When Liam finished his retelling, he leant forwards in his seat, placing his elbows on his knees and resting his forehead on his hands. Harry’s hand rubbed up and down his back in comfort. He allowed himself a few moments to let the shock of everything that had happened sink in.

The concern and panic upon finding that Niall was missing, the anger of realising that someone had kidnapped him, the exhausting, fruitless days spent scouring the city for any sign of him and the despair of returning to the house without him. The hope that they might actually have a chance of finding him and the elation of seeing him alive in that warehouse. The horror of realising what had happened to him and what Will had been subjecting his prisoners to. The adrenaline of the fight, the worry at seeing Zayn injured, the urgency of needing to get him and Niall to safety. The rage at Will holding Louis captive, the fury as he had touched Louis, the terrible knowledge that Louis would die if he didn’t do something, the easy acceptance of his fate if it meant that Louis would survive. The disbelief of watching Louis sacrifice himself, the horror as the life was drawn from him, the devastation of holding Louis’ seemingly lifeless body in his arms and realising that he was too late.

A pained sob was ripped from Liam as he relived every moment. Harry immediately wrapped him into a tight hug, whispering that it was going to be alright.

After a while of Harry holding him tightly and rubbing his back, he began to feel something else.

The hope that Zayn and Niall would both make full recoveries. The knowledge that even though Louis was clinging onto life by a thread, he _was_ clinging on. The determination that they would all make it. The love that he felt for all of his friends and knew that they returned. The feeling in his chest that he felt whenever he thought of Louis’ smile.

He squeezed Harry a little tighter.

None of them were giving up on life. They were all fighting for it and, for the first time in a quite a while, Liam was too.

***

Louis felt like he had the hangover from Hell. Maybe he was _in_ Hell. That would be the only possible explanation for the way he felt.

He didn’t really want to risk opening his eyes. Surely the throbbing ache in his head would only intensify if he dared to lift his eyelids. His limbs felt like dead weights. His throat felt like he had been gargling with sand.

He was struggling to focus his thoughts – what had happened to him? Gradually, he began to remember searching for Niall. He remembered hearing a voice and finding the warehouse. He remembered discovering Niall and fighting with other mutants. And suddenly he remembered Liam’s face, contorted into a look of pain even though there didn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with him. He remembered Liam screaming his name…

Louis’ eyes snapped open and he immediately regretted it as he squinted against the light streaming through the window. He tried to lift his hand to block some of the light but found he could barely move his arm; his fingers twitched against the blanket. Not his blanket, not his bed, not his room.

“Wuh?” he managed to groan and suddenly there was a hand holding his, squeezing his fingers tightly.

“Louis? Can you hear me?”

Turning his head slightly to the side, Louis continued squinting but saw the hopeful face of Niall looking back at him eagerly. He just blinked slowly for a few moments.

“Ni?” he whispered hoarsely. God, his throat was dry.

“Fucking hell mate, it’s good to see you,” Niall exclaimed with a grin.

For a moment, Louis wondered where he’d been but then realised that maybe he hadn’t _been_ anywhere, maybe he’d just not been _there_ fully. He wanted to speak, he wanted to ask so many questions but when he tried to force them out, nothing came. His mouth flapped open a few times and he looked at Niall pitifully hoping that he’d understand.

“D’you want a drink?” Niall suddenly asked.

Louis nodded slightly, the movement requiring a ridiculous amount of energy.

Slowly, Niall pushed himself out of his chair and equally slowly made his way over to the jug on the bedside table. He poured out a cup of water and came back to Louis. He helped him to sit up slightly and then supported him while he gratefully swallowed the cool liquid. Louis had never known that water could taste so wonderful.

“Thank you,” he managed to say as he lay back against the pillows. His voice was gravelly but at least it was working now.

“I bet that feels better,” Niall commented, still with a smile on his face.

“What…happened?” Louis asked slowly. He felt like he had to think carefully about his words and take deep breaths between them. “Are you…alright? What about…the others?”

Niall’s smile fell a little and his expression darkened a little. Instantly, Louis was afraid that something awful had happened. Was one of the others hurt? What if they were gone? A beeping beside the bed alerted both men that Louis’ heart rate was rising in his panic but Niall just took his hand and squeezed again.

“They’re all okay,” he promised. “I just don’t like thinking about what happened, that’s all.”

Louis did his best to calm himself down and tried to squeeze Niall’s hand in return – it was a rather feeble effort. His eyes fell shut for a moment as he willed the pain in his head to subside.

“I should fetch a nurse,” Niall said quietly.

“No,” Louis forced out, his eyes opening again. “Please…will you…tell me?”

Niall nodded once and started his retelling of the story. He explained everything from the moment the team had gone to the crash on the motorway. He told Louis how he had noticed that the cameras outside had stopped working but he didn’t want to leave the computers in case he was needed. Before he had realised what was going on, someone had grabbed hold of him from behind. He had struggled and fought with his attacker but had suddenly lost his strength. He remembered collapsing onto the floor and then nothing else until he met Will at the warehouse.

Niall’s story continued, telling Louis about what had happened while he was kept prisoner and his desperate attempts to send out a call for help. He didn’t remember what had happened when the team had found him; that part of the story was all based on what the others had told him. When he told Louis about what had happened between himself, Liam and Will, Louis’ own memories came flooding back to him. He remembered the dizzy feeling as his strength seemed to leave him when Will touched his skin, he remembered Liam’s furious and scared expression and he remembered knowing that he was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that Liam didn’t get hurt.

Suddenly, what might have been a memory flashed into his head. He remembered dragging himself back into consciousness. It was so hard; he felt like he was swimming through treacle as he battled to open his eyes. There was none of the pain that time, maybe they’d got him on some powerful drugs, but the lethargy was still present. Eventually, he’d forced his eyes open – achingly slowly. Sitting beside the bed, watching him with complete focus, was Liam. As Louis blinked at him confusedly, the worried frown and sadness in Liam’s eyes had slowly lifted until he was gazing at Louis with an expression full of fondness and hope.

They shared a moment of simply looking at one another before Louis felt his eyelids drooping. He didn’t want to close his eyes again, he wanted to stay with Liam, but that wasn’t meant to be. Whatever drugs were being pumped into his system were sedating him once more and he drifted away again.

It seemed like a lovely dream, but Louis hoped it was reality.

When Niall finished his story, Louis looked at him steadily. “And…are you alright – really?” he asked slowly.

Niall shrugged and wrinkled his nose slightly. “I’m okay,” he said quietly. “Still a bit shaken up I guess. And I get tired out pretty quickly. The docs said I’ll be back on my feet properly as long as I take it easy now and don’t overdo things.”

“I’m glad…you’re doing okay,” Louis told him as he squeezed his hand again. Then he blinked at him slowly and tried to stifle a yawn.

“You should get some rest,” Niall said and he leant back from the bed.

At the prospect of being left, Louis looked a little alarmed but Niall just patted his arm. “Don’t worry, I’m staying until Harry arrives.”

Feeling reassured that he wouldn’t be alone, Louis allowed his eyes to fall shut and he immediately slipped into a deep sleep.

***

Three days later, Louis’ recovery was progressing well. He was managing to stay awake for longer periods of time and was actually able to sit up in bed without any assistance.

Apparently, he had been in a coma for a week. The doctors had said that his body was doing whatever it could to protect itself and as a result it had effectively shut down.

Since he had been awake more consistently, Louis had always had either Niall, Harry or Zayn, or some combination of them, at his side. They had told him that Will was dead and his victims were all being treated at the hospital. They were all in various stages of treatment but it was hoped that they would all make a full recovery.

Louis was extremely grateful for the company of his friends, as it kept his mind from thinking about what had happened. When he was alone, at night when he was supposed to be asleep, he sometimes woke up and then struggled to get back to sleep. At those times he couldn’t stop himself from remembering what had gone on at the warehouse but that wasn’t what really kept him awake. His thoughts always ended up drifting to Liam. He wondered why Liam hadn’t been to visit him.

Before they’d gone to rescue Niall, Louis was sure that he and Liam had shared something, a moment or some sort of connection. They’d been growing closer. And Louis was sure that what had passed between them at the warehouse, just before he’d attacked Will, was a look of something special, even as Louis knew that he was likely to die. But there had been no sign of Liam at the hospital so maybe he didn’t care after all.

After wondering why Liam hadn’t made an appearance at the hospital, Louis had eventually asked Harry what was going on. Harry had shrugged uncertainly and offered no helpful explanation to Louis. But he did say something that made Louis feel better: apparently while Louis had been unconscious, Liam had spent every possible moment at his bedside. Liam had been the one to tell them that Louis had started to show signs of waking up, however briefly, with a look of sheer relief on his exhausted face. While that made Louis feel warm inside and somewhat calmed him, he still didn’t understand Liam’s absence.

On the fourth morning that Louis woke up in his hospital bed, he was a little surprised to find that he was alone. Each morning that he had stirred from his sleep, he had found one of his friends occupying the chair beside his bed, however today there was no-one. He wondered if something was wrong and actually started to panic a little before he realised that there was someone standing in the doorway to his room. Not just someone - Liam.

Liam looked agitated as he stood staring at Louis. He was chewing his lower lip and shifting his weight from one foot to the other but he made no attempt to cross the threshold.

They just stared at one another for what seemed like a long time.

“I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time and then looked at each other in confusion.

Louis knew what he was apologising for. While he’d had time to think through the events at the warehouse, he had come to the conclusion that Liam was angry with him. What other reason did he have for staying away? Louis was sure that Liam was mad at him for getting himself captured by Will in the first place, and also for attempting to stop him in the way that he had. Surely, Louis’ risky actions were exactly the sort of thing that Liam hated. Surely, he was furious at Louis for his recklessness. And Louis wanted to apologise for that. He also wanted Liam to know that he had only done what he had in order to save him and stop Will from hurting anyone else. But he was also sure that Liam wouldn’t take too kindly to anyone ‘saving’ him in such a way. Louis was sure that Liam would struggle to forgive him so had absolutely no idea why Liam was apologising to _him_.

Liam was looking back at Louis with an equally bewildered expression. He moved towards the bed so suddenly that Louis actually jumped in surprise.

“What do you have to be sorry for?” Liam asked sounding almost desperate as he stood beside the bed and looked down at Louis.

Louis took a few breaths as he tried to calm his racing heart. “Everything,” he said earnestly. “For getting caught and trying to stop Will like that and getting hurt.”

“Don’t” Liam said forcefully. “Don’t you dare.”

Louis blinked at him a few times in shock. He didn’t understand this conversation.

“You have nothing to apologise for Louis. You were really brave to do what you did.”

“But…I thought you were mad at me,” Louis said quietly.

“Why would you think that?” Liam asked. His eyebrows were furrowed as he continued looking at Louis in concern.

“Because…well because you haven’t been to see me.” Louis felt silly saying it. Liam wasn’t obligated to visit him after all.

A deep sigh fell from Liam’s lips and he sank down into the plastic chair beside the bed. “I’m not mad…at you anyway. I was mad at that bastard for hurting you and Niall, but I’m mostly mad at myself. I’m mad that I couldn’t stop you from getting hurt and I’m mad at myself for being such a coward.”

“What are you talking about?” Louis asked in complete confusion. “It wasn’t your fault that I got hurt so you shouldn’t be mad at yourself for that. And, you aren’t a coward; I know that you offered to sacrifice yourself to help me.”

“That’s not what I mean though,” Liam said with a shake of his head. “I’ve been hiding away at the house instead of coming here to visit you, _that’s_ why I’m a coward.”

“You’re here now,” Louis offered with a small smile, trying to reassure Liam that everything was alright between them.

“But that’s not good enough,” Liam argued. “I should’ve come before now. I’ve been so scared.”

“Of what?” Louis asked in bewilderment.

“ _You_ ,” Liam stated simply.

The word hung in the air between them for a long moment. Louis had no idea how to respond. He just didn’t understand what Liam was saying.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” Liam eventually continued, “and I’ve come to the conclusion that…you kind of terrify me.” He huffed out a bitter little laugh at his own words but carried on speaking before Louis could interrupt. “At the warehouse, when Will had got you…I thought he was going to kill you. I couldn’t stand the thought of it. I couldn’t stand it when he touched you and I saw you hurt. I was so scared that I was going to lose you…I was going to stand there and watch you die in front of me and I couldn’t bear it. I tried to make him let you go by trying to take your place but it was too late, everything was already set in motion by that point. And when you attacked him and you collapsed…I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost you. It took losing you to realise how much I cared about you and I was too late.”

Louis swallowed thickly. He was struggling to absorb Liam’s words. His mind was racing at what Liam was telling him; he cared for him, a lot by what he was saying. The thought of it filled Louis with hope and happiness.

“But it’s not too late,” Louis told him. “I’m going to be okay. And I care about you too…that’s why I did it. I didn’t want to see you get hurt either.”

“I was so scared Lou,” Liam said as he leant his elbows on the bed and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. He sighed deeply again. “And I’m still scared now.”

Louis reached out and tugged at Liam’s wrist slightly trying to make the other man look at him again.

“You terrify me…you have for quite a while now,” Liam admitted as he finally made eye contact with Louis again. “You make me feel…things that I haven’t for a long time. You make me happy but also so bloody afraid. I can’t bear the thought of losing another person that I care about…that I love…so how can I take the risk? So that’s why I’m a coward, because I’m so afraid of my feelings for you and what they might mean.”

A heavy silence fell in the room. Louis was still reeling from Liam’s confession. He had been sure that Liam was avoiding him because he was angry with him but in reality Liam was actually struggling to cope with the fact that he had feelings for him; feelings that Louis returned just as strongly. No matter how scared Liam was, Louis wasn’t going to give up on him. He had to make him see that if there was a chance for them to be happy together they had to take it.     

“I know you’ve been hurt in the past Li, by things that you couldn’t control. And I know that you’re scared of the same thing happening again. But do you really want to spend forever being afraid of that? I can’t make you any promises about the future, no-one can, but don’t you think it’s better to be together and scared, than alone and still equally frightened of what might happen? You can’t live like that; you can exist but you can’t _live_ – you can’t be happy. Don’t you think it’s worth taking the risk to have a life that’s worth living?”

Liam’s eyes were bright as he looked at Louis. The weariness and frown on his face seemed to have been swept away by Louis’ words. He gently took Louis’ hand, still with slight hesitance in his actions, and laced their fingers together.

“No matter how scary all of this is and how much my feelings frighten me…I think,” he breathed out, “if you’re willing to take the risk…then so am I. You’re worth it Lou.”

Louis’ answering smile was beaming as he squeezed Liam’s fingers tightly. He tugged on his hand and pulled Liam closer so that their faces were close. Then he reached his other hand up to thread his fingers into the hair at the back of Liam’s head.

The kiss was tentative; nothing more than a soft brush of lips as Louis was afraid that Liam would bolt at any moment when he realised what was happening. But when Liam pulled away slightly, he gazed into Louis’ eyes fondly and more than a little dazedly. His expression said that he wasn’t going anywhere. He smiled sweetly and stroked his hand down the side of Louis’ face to cup his cheek gently.  

“I’ll help you to be brave,” Louis whispered, before he leant up and pressed his lips against Liam’s again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go...


	7. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are at the end of another fic. I decided to end this one with a short epilogue. I hope you have enjoyed reading and like the way I've wrapped the story up. I'd love to know what you thought of this fic - thank you in advance to anyone that reads, leaves kudos or comments - it means the world to me! :)

Two years later

The scream ripped through the peace of the afternoon.

Immediately, four sets of eyes flicked in the direction that the sound had come from.

Louis rolled his eyes as he heard the giggling coming from the small child that had previously been screaming bloody murder.

A moment later, Liam had grabbed hold of the little girl and her twin brother, and was growling as he clutched one of them under each arm. Louis wasn’t sure if Liam was supposed to be the abominable snowman or some sort of bear but either way it was entertaining his youngest siblings as Liam easily lifted them and carried them around the garden. More screaming and more giggling followed as Louis watched on fondly.

Not long after, Liam wandered over, still with the children hanging off him as he pretended to struggle under their weight.

“Uh,” he groaned dramatically, “You’re too heavy for me.”

“Poor Liam,” Louis said to the twins. “He’s getting too old for all of this. Why don’t you two go and see what Harry’s up to? If you’re good, he might even take you somewhere for an adventure.”

The children’s eyes widened and they looked at each other for a moment before turning and running off in Harry’s direction, both of them shouting, “ _Beach!_ ” at the same time.

Louis laughed brightly as he leant over to look at where Liam had sprawled out on the grass pitifully.

“Come on old man,” he said as he offered Liam his hand to pull him up.

Liam took it but scowled at Louis in response before pulling him down to lie on top of him. “You do realise that you’re actually older than me, don’t you? So if anyone’s the _old man_ here, it’s you,” Liam said in mock seriousness.

Louis arched his eyebrow at Liam. “Don’t go getting any ideas about trading me in for a younger model,” he said.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Liam replied before he pressed his lips against Louis’.

Louis smiled into the kiss, before he ran his tongue along Liam’s lips. He hummed a little in pleasure as he felt Liam’s mouth open and his tongue meet his own.

“Ahem,” Niall coughed loudly from above them.

They broke apart and grinned a little sheepishly up at him.

“You do realise that there are children present,” Niall said with a smirk. “And I’m not sure that any of the rest of us want to witness you two getting frisky on the lawn.”

Louis just laughed and buried his face into Liam’s chest.

Then Harry was making his way over, accompanied by two cheekily grinning children. “A trip to the beach has been requested,” Harry said with a smile. “But it’s up to you.”

“Please Lou, please,” the twins were bouncing up and down on their toes as they begged their older brother.

“Hmm, I’m not sure,” he said as he plastered on a thoughtful expression.

More pleading immediately erupted from the children before Louis held up his hand to silence them.

“I _suppose_ we can go to the beach, if you _really_ want to,” he sounded like it was a great effort but his younger siblings obviously knew him too well. They bounded forward and wrapped him in a tight hug before running off with Harry to collect their bags from the house.      

“You’re a soft-touch,” Liam whispered against his ear, causing him to shudder a little.

Louis nosed Liam’s hair as he replied, “Nah, I just wanted to get you shirtless and sweaty.” He pressed a final kiss to Liam’s lips before he pushed himself up and wandered towards the house leaving Liam staring after him with a grin on his face.

***

Louis and Liam had put everything into their relationship. They were good for one another; everyone around them could see it and Liam and Louis could _feel_ it.

Things weren’t perfect but Louis always reminded Liam that nobody’s relationship was. Liam still had moments where his fear of losing Louis got too much. Sometimes he shut down and pushed Louis (and everyone else) away but Louis always managed to pull Liam back.

The hardest times were when Louis did something risky or ended up in a dangerous situation because of something he’d done. It had caused some blazing rows between the two men but it had also been the cause of some of their most passionate moments.

The first time that Liam had properly announced that he was in love with Louis was when he had yelled it at him across their bedroom during an argument after Louis had fallen off a roof on one of their missions. Louis had responded by shouting at Liam, “ _Yeah, well I’m in love with you too, you dick_ ,” before they had crashed together passionately and had rather wonderful make-up sex.

Louis had tried to take less risks and had promised Liam that he would be more sensible but Liam didn’t want him to – not really. He knew that being spontaneous was part of Louis’ character and that was just another reason why he loved him so deeply.       

***

Much later that evening, Louis wandered into their bedroom and flopped onto the bed beside Liam. He had dropped the twins back at his mum’s and was exhausted after a full day of keeping them entertained.

“D’you know that while we were in the car, Ernie said that when he grows up, he wants to be just like you?” Louis said.

Liam smiled widely. “Aw, that’s nice.”

“ _Nice_?” Louis echoed. “It’s not _nice_ , it’s a bloody insult. My own little brother idolises you more than me. It’s shocking.”

Liam rolled his eyes at Louis. He knew that he wasn’t actually offended. He leant over Louis and kissed his pouting lips softly until he felt Louis’ mouth quirk into a smile.

“You just wanted me to make you feel better, didn’t you?” Liam asked knowingly.

“You see right through me,” Louis smirked as he reached up to pull Liam back for another kiss.

When he eventually pulled away, Louis looked up at Liam fondly. “I really do love you, you know.”

Liam smiled down at him. “And I really do love you, just in case you were wondering.”

Louis hummed in contentment before pulling Liam back in for another kiss.

They’d both lost things, they’d both been hurt terribly by things that had happened to them and they both could have given up. But they’d found each other and saved each other and what they had was definitely worth fighting for.    


End file.
